Nagaland chief secretary, Temjen Toy reiterated that in the event of implementation of Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), Nagaland will be protected under Article 371 (A), because even if an outsider, irrespective of whether an Indian citizen or non Indian citizen, cannot acquire property in Nagaland.
He said this while speaking at the one-day symposium on “Citizenship Amendment Bill – Impact on North East India” as a special guest Saturday. The symposium was organised by the department of Political Science in collaboration with IQAC Dimapur Government College (DGC) at the college premises.
In his address, the chief secretary gave a brief on the primary objective of CAB that seeks to provide Indian citizenship to some religious communities from neighbouring countries. As against the current stipulation of 11 years, he said the CAB amendment seeks to reduce the period six years.
Toy also reiterated that the state government has no authority to grant Indian citizenship to any person since it fell within the powers of the central government to decide on the matter.
“The government felt that we should be more concerned about the illegal immigrants and also about how to implement the Inner Line Permit more effectively”, Toy remarked.
He expressed the view that people in the state ought to look at the neighbouring North eastern states on how influx of illegal immigrants has affected their society.
Afrida Hussain, editor-in-chief Inside North East presented a slide show while sharing the definition of CAB and sharing about apprehensions in the minds of the people of the region that it would impact their indigenous identity and rights.
She also dwelt on the Assam Accord signed in 1985 which determines that those who failed to prove that their ancestors came to India before March 24, 1971 shall be deemed as illegal immigrants.
“The biggest concern in Assam is that the CAB undermines the effect of the Assam Accord as the National Register of Citizens(NRC) had excluded 19 lakh people.”
She also dwelt on the protests and unrest all over the north eastern states ever since the CAB was sought to be tabled by showing live streaming videos of speeches delivered by the chief ministers of North eastern states who had expressed serious concerns over the bill at the NEIDA meeting recently held in Guwahati.
In a live streaming video Union Home Minister Amit Shah was seen assuring that the indigenous rights of the northeastern people would be protected under Article 371.
Hussain also shared her interactions with the chief ministers who felt that a proper homework was needed before mulling the re-tabling of CAB.
She also said the government of India should assure protection of indigenous rights in writing. Hussain opined that agitations and protests have little value in expressing resentment but instead, consultations and representations would serve the purpose better.
During the discussion hour, Civil Society Organisation member, Supu Jamir disagreed with Hussain about the futility of protest by supplementing his counter-argument that when memorandum etc do not evince positive response, the best option was to express resentment through protests and agitations.
Former minister Z. Lohe questioned the government of India on whether it wasn’t tired of wearing the unity in diversity uniform as against ineffective laws that grant Indian citizenship to illegal immigrants.
One of the speakers opined that if religious persecution was the narrative of the government then it should raise the issue with the United Nations.
Views during discussion revolved around the confusion among north eastern states over the CAB as it raised doubts on whether the Centre might bypass the states that could threaten the rights of indigenous people
The objective of the symposium was to mainstream opinions of the people in the region so as to bring up suggestions regarding the probable implementation of CAB.
After the programme, the chief secretary also inaugurated the Eco Park named as “Friendship Park”constructed under RUSA scheme at the college premises . The park was designed, supervised and personally handcrafted by associate professor, department of English (HOD English), Mithu Longkumer.
The symposium was attended by the DC Dimapur, Civil Society Organisations, intellectuals from Dimapur and Kohima, DGC faculties and others where the Chief Secretary of Nagaland, Temjen Toy was the special guest and founder and editor-in-chief Inside NE, Gawahati, Afrida Hussain as the resource person.
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