GUWAHATI, Dec 15 - Acclaimed filmmaker from Manipur Aribam Syam Sharma who recently returned his Padma Shri award in protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 (now an Act) made a strong pitch for keeping the whole of North-east out of the ambit of the Act.
Asserting that the Act would cause irreparable and long-term damage to the socio-political fabric of the North-east - a region dissimilar to rest of India on several counts - the octogenarian filmmaker said that States like Manipur had placed their legitimate concerns before the Centre forcefully and was able to keep the State out of the Act�s purview.
�All the north-eastern states must be kept out the Act�s ambit in view of the grave dangers stemming from the legislation to the region. There can be no reason why Assam and Tripura � the two States that have suffered the most from cross-border Bangladeshi infiltration � should come under the Act,� he said.
Sharma added that the Act was not just anti-constitutional and communally polarizing but was also against the cultures, heritage and the unity and integrity of the North-east.
Lauding the role of the All Assam Students� Union in carrying forward the mass protests, Sharma said that it was unacceptable that the contentious Act having ominous portents for the State should be imposed on Assam, undermining in the process the Assam Accord which is very clear about detection and expulsion of illegal migrants.
