Home minister to visit Mizoram on Saturday amid anti-bill stir

GUWAHATI: Mizoram BJP is all set to welcome Union home minister and the party's national president Amit Shah to Aizawl on Saturday amidst a massive protest planned by NGOs of the state against the Centre's proposal to re-introduce the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in Parliament in November this year.
Shah's Aizawl visit is a part of efforts by BJP to reach out to the northeast states and try to persuade the people in the region to form a positive opinion on the bill.
Mizoram's powerful coordination committee of NGOs, which had forced the Election Commission to shift out the state chief electoral officer before the last assembly election, is strongly opposing the bill. The coordination committee of NGOs had also boycotted the Republic Day celebrations in the state this year in protest against the bill as they fear the promulgation of the bill into an Act will encourage the influx of Chakma refugees from the adjoining Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh.
In fact, several groups across the northeast fear that the proposed amendment would have detrimental consequences in the region.
Mizoram BJP general secretary Vanlalhmuaka said the party's state president had appealed to the NGOs to call off their protest and instead use the opportunity to voice their grievances to Shah. But the NGOs have so far remained firm on their commitment to stage the protest.
"We are ready to welcome the country's home minister Amit Shah on Saturday. The state BJP has no knowledge about the contents of the proposed amendment bill and unless we know what will be there, we cannot have any stand on the issue," said Vanlalhmuaka. He added that the state party unit is yet to receive the detailed itinerary of Shah's visit.
The bill seeks to make Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis, Christians and Jains from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who entered India till December 31, 2014 due to religious persecution, eligible for Indian citizenship. It was introduced in Parliament in 2016 and sent to a joint parliamentary committee, which subsequently gave the Centre the green signal to go ahead with the bill.
The last Lok Sabha passed the bill earlier this year but it lapsed after the Centre failed to table it in the Rajya Sabha. The Centre now wants to re-introduce the bill in Parliament in November, with some modifications.