Chakhroma GBs Union (CGBU) has termed Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) as “very dangerous”, particularly for the North-eastern region, which offered lot of opportunities for outsiders to explore and exploit.
Expressing astonishment on how not only “our MPs” voted in favour of the Bill, but even the State government chose to remain silent without making a statement in the interest of “our people and land”, the union said nothing would be gained from the Act.
And CGBU, as custodian and defender of customary laws, would stand opposed to the Act, union president Rokovitso Kuotsu and secretary Thepfükuo Nagi asserted in a statement.
“Let’s all stand together and protect our land and culture before it becomes too late,” the duo appealed.
Mentioning that it was very disturbed at the passage of CAA by parliament, the union termed the Act as nothing but a deliberate attempt to invade and snatch “our land” by overwhelming indigenous people with immigrants, even as it said it was baffled how two MPs from Nagaland could vote in favour of such a “nefarious law” without the least concern about the long term consequences it could have on the people.
They should be made answerable to the people for their action, the union demanded.
CGBU said the notion and argument that ILP and Article 371A were there for protection and that CAA would not be effective because of these special provisions was just ridiculous, adding nothing could be farther from the truth. CAA in itself and the arguments given in its support by its supporters were nothing but a “sugar-coated poisonous pill given to us to kill and annihilate our culture, ethnicity, language and land and resources of our people”, it warned.
According to the union, ILP had not been able check the influx of immigrants despite being in operation for so many decades, rather it had only become a money-making tool for certain people. It was not a problem for any outsider to procure ILP and enter Nagaland, and everyone was witness to how today the local economy was being controlled by outsiders who entered the State on temporary permit, it added.
So, CGBU cautioned that granting citizenship to the immigrants would only facilitate more inflow of outsiders into the North-eastern States, particularly Assam and Nagaland, who would overrun people completely and take complete control of land and resources. Even though Sixth Schedule areas were exempted from CAA, it won’t be a problem for these immigrants to procure citizenship from other States and then enter “our land” as legitimate citizens of India, and “we” would not be in a position to deport them, it stressed.
The statement added that after these immigrants enter “our land” as citizens of India, it was not difficult for them to renew their permits on regular basis or settle permanently after marrying local people.
Further warning that getting citizenship would mean getting all rights, including the right to vote and employment, CGBU explained that since the economy was already controlled by outsiders, it won’t be long before they took control of politics too once they entered “our land” as citizens of India with voting rights. And once these people took control of politics, it would be only a matter of time when they would wield enormous power over the legislators.
And if the government could do away with Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir without any hesitation, the union said it won’t be a herculean task for the government to erase Article 371A from the Constitution of India too once the vote bank was established. “So it will be very foolish on our part to console ourselves with Article 371A,” it warned.
CGBU said when the country was faced with acute economic and employment crisis, how the Government of India could imagine bringing in more foreigners and grant them citizenship was a million dollar question.
When there were so many genuine Indian citizens starving and the government could not feed them, the union asked how it could snatch food from them to feed the neighbours.
And as citizenship would also mean the right to employment, CGBU asked when the country was already facing unemployment crisis, how some foreigners be allowed to come and snatch away the little job opportunities that “we have”.