While anti-CAB protests resound across Assam, two MLAs of the ruling BJP on December 6 attended the last day of the Winter Session of the state Legislative Assembly carrying posters in support of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
The two BJP legislators – Numol Momin and Mrinal Saikia – walked to the Assembly building from their residential quarters with posters in support of the bill hanging around their necks.
They maintained that the Central government was correct in pushing for the CAB, and claimed that India is the natural home for Hindus and Sikhs. The duo stressed that Mahatma Gandhi had urged India to keep its doors open for Hindus and Sikhs who were residents of undivided India, but had chosen to stay on in Bangladesh or Pakistan following the Partition along religious lines.
Momin and Saikia alleged that the Congress was adopting a hypocritical stand in the citizenship issue as the party was not following the call given by the Mahatma.
The CAB, which is expected to be tabled in the Parliament next week, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to persecuted religious minorities, including Hindus and Sikhs, from the three neighbouring countries of Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.
The bill has been facing stiff resistance in Assam and other Northeast states, with the people claiming that CAB will legalise infiltrators from Bangladesh and change the demographic pattern of the region.
