Congress instigating protests against CAB in North East: Pralhad Joshi

Union Minister Pralhad Joshi on Thursday said that the Congress is running a misinformation campaign in North-East India and instigating protests against the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB).

"Congress party is running a misinformation campaign in North-East India. Congress is not able to digest our work in the North-East and that is the reason it is instigating protests in the region. This law is to award citizenship and not to take away citizenship from anyone," Joshi told reporters here.

BJP MP Roopa Ganguly said: "I have suffered the pain of displacement myself as I had to flee from Dinajpur in erstwhile East Pakistan. The married ladies had to wipe away vermilion from their heads to save their lives. Our family got its passport and other documents made when we reached India but what about those who haven't yet got citizenship of the country?"

Assam's Guwahati and Dibrugarh have been placed under indefinite curfew till further orders in the wake of protests after the passage of the CAB in Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.

The administration has also suspended mobile Internet services for 24 hours from 7 pm on Wednesday in ten districts of the state - Lakhimpur, Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Dibrugarh, Charaideo, Sivasagar, Jorhat, Golaghat, Kamrup (metro) and Kamrup.

The decision came in the wake of protests in the state against the CAB.

The CAB smoothly sailed through Parliament after Rajya Sabha passed it on Wednesday. As many as 125 members of the Upper House voted in favour while 105 MPs voted against the Bill, which was passed by Lok Sabha earlier this week.

The Bill seeks to grant Indian citizenship to refugees from Hindu, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Zoroastrian communities fleeing religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan, and Bangladesh and who entered India on or before December 31, 2014.