DIMAPUR, Jan 25 - The Nagaland Pradesh Congress Committee (NPCC) has said that the BJP�s assurance that Nagaland is safeguarded from the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) by the inner line permit (ILP) regime is false.
Condemning the repeated statements of Nagaland BJP president and minister Temjen Imna Along on the CAA, the NPCC, in a statement on Wednesday, said that Along has got his facts wrong on Nagaland being a Sixth Schedule State.
On his re-election as the State BJP president on January 14, Along said that the CAA would not affect Nagaland as the State is protected under the Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873.
�It is the BJP which has politicised the CAA by making religion the basis for citizenship, that has struck at the liberal and plural idea of India,� the NPCC said. It added that exemption from the CAA on the basis of the ILP is just a ploy to divide the North East region. It said despite having ILP for several decades, the Nagaland Government has not been able to check the influx of illegal migrants.
The NPCC added that the fallout of the CAA and the NRC in neighbouring Assam and other parts of the country, would open the floodgates for those granted citizenship through the CAA to procure ILPs and quietly settle down among the tribal population.