NSF holds rally against citizenship bill

Naga Students' Federation, the apex students' body in the northeastern state, Friday held a protest rally here demanding the withdrawal of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.

"The north-east is not a dumping ground for illegal Bangladeshis," NSF president Kesosul Christopher Ltu said at the rally.

The NSF is part of the North East Students Organisation (NESO), an umbrella organisation of different student unions of the region opposed to the citizenship bill.

Effigies of illegal immigrants and the bill were burnt by the students. The bill, introduced in Parliament in 2016, seeks to make Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh or Pakistan eligible for Indian citizenship after a stay of six years.

Ltu said all states of the region were faced with the problem of illegal immigration from Bangladesh which had become a threat to the social fabric of the north-east and demography of its states.

"We have noticed disturbing machinations of the Union government to encourage further illegal immigration from Bangladesh," he claimed.

"We will strongly resist creation of another Tripura in the north-east region," Ltu said and urged the Centre to recognise the efforts of the student community to strengthen the nation's secular fabric.

The bill was a threat to the language, culture, identity of the indigenous people of the north-east, he said, adding the NESO, of which NSF was a constituent, and the people of the region would not accept it.

The NSF had submitted a letter to the Nagaland government in August to strengthen the state's mechanism for curbing influx of illegal immigrants.

The state government had then assured to come out with an interim report on illegal immigrants within two months but had not done so till date, he said and demanded that it do so.

NSF general secretary Imtiyapang said the organisation had held a similar rally here in April and also in Dimapur after a call of the NESO demanding inclusion of Dimapur district under the purview of the Inner Line Permit.

The Inner Line Permit was an official travel document issued by Government of India to allow inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected or restricted area for a limited period. It was obligatory for Indian citizens from outside those states to obtain permit for entering into the protected state.