SHILLONG, MAR 12: The North East Students’ Organization (NESO) on Tuesday burnt copies of the Citizenship Amendmnt Rules, 2024 as a mark of protest against the implementation of the Citizenship Amendment Act in the North Eastern region.
The protest was participated by leaders and activists of the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) and Federation of Khasi Jaintia and Garo People (FKJGP).
Speaking to reporters, Chairman of NESO Samuel B Jyrwa said not only in Shillong but in different parts of the whole NE region, different student organizations are burning the CAA rules, which was notified by the GOI yesterday, as a mark of protest against the implementation of the CAA in the NE region.
“Since the passage of the Act in December 2019, we thought that the GOI after four years will take into account the concerns, the apprehensions of the people of NE region but we are very disapponted that the GOI did not take into account the apprehensions and the objections of the indigenous people of the NE but instead went ahead with the notifying of the rules for the implementation of the CAA in the whole of India and also in the NE region,” Jyrwa said.
“We are burning the rules to send a clear message to the GOI that the indigenous people of NE region are against the implementation of the CAA,” he added.
Asked, Jyrwa however said, “Well we cannot live in isolation as a NE region even though in Meghalaya, only the Sixth Schedule areas are being exempted, in Tripura, the Sixth Schedule areas are exempted and in Assam, the Karbi Anglong areas, Dima Hasao and the Boro areas are being exempted and the ILP states like Mizoram, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur are also exempted but the main state of the NE region, which is Assam all the other areas of Assam are not exempted from the purview of the CAA and if Assam is affected slowly, gradually the other NE states will also be affected.”
“Just take for example even without the CAA here in the state of Meghalaya, we have seen the foreigners, non-indigenous people how they have become majority in many places especially here in Shillong and the border areas,” he said.
The NESO chief reminded that the Sixth Schedule does not talk about migration and does not have any power to regulate migration.
“That is why we feel the power to regulate the migration is with the state government and the central government. The State government has enacted the MRSSA in which as of now the High Court has stayed the implementation of the MRSSA and the ILP, the government of India has not granted for implementation of the ILP, that is why we are against implementation of the CAA,” he said.
Jyrwa said that the NE states have taken the burden of illegal migration from Bangladesh since 1947 continuing till 1971 and all those years, people from Bangladesh have migrated to the different NE region. “We have taken that burden and the NE region and its indigenous people cannot take that burden anymore.”
The chairman of NESO said that the organization will continue to hold peaceful democratic protest in the streets against the CAA.
He also informed, “But at the same time we have also taken legal recourse in which we have filed a petition in the Supreme Court since January 2020 and we have firm faith and believe that the Supreme Court of India will give justice to the apprehensions, to the concerns and to the welfare of the indigenous people of the NE region.”