AGARTALA, Nov 28 - The protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, in Tripura gained momentum with nearly all political parties including the Congress, CPI (M), IPFT and INPT gearing up for a movement to thwart the controversial Bill.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah has convened a consultation meet on the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill at his official residence in New Delhi at 9 pm tomorrow. All political parties of the North Eastern States have been invited to attend the meeting to make their respective stands on the sensitive Bill clear.
Confirming the development, Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee vice president Pijush Biswas today said: �We have been invited to attend the meeting scheduled for tomorrow. However, no representative from the Pradesh Congress Committee will attend the meeting as we received the invitation at 4 pm today, while the meeting will begin tomorrow.�
Biswas told media persons that the Congress would continue to oppose the citizenship Bill as it was detrimental to peace and amity in the State. �The people of the country will never accept politics in the name of religion. We urge the Centre to abandon the Bill in the greater interest of the country,� he said.
The Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT), a regional tribal party, has already called a national highway and railway blockade on December 5 in protest against the Centre�s move to introduce the Bill again.
Significantly, the Indigenous People�s Front of Tripura (IPFT), an ally of the BJP-led coalition Government in the State, has demanded exclusion of Tripura from the purview of the Bill.
Meanwhile, former State Congress president Pradyot Kishore Debbarman is leaving for New Delhi to meet the Union Home Minister tomorrow. Sources said the royal scion would be accompanied by representatives of several tribal organisations.
When contacted, Debbarman said the North Eastern States would be severely affected if the citizenship Bill was passed in Parliament. �The demographic balance will come under threat once the Bill is passed. Tripura is already overburdened with the influx suffered during the 1971 Bangladesh liberation war. We will highlight these burning issues in the meeting with the Union minister,� he said.
�We want the BJP-led Government to drop the plan to table the citizenship Bill in Parliament. If the Government goes ahead with the Bill, there will be a massive agitation not only in Tripura but also in the entire North East,� Debbarman warned.
It may be noted the North East Students Organisation (NESO) has already staged a massive anti-citizenship Bill stir in all State capitals of the North East. Now, the New India Students� Association (NISA) has also decided to hold a sit-in demonstration in the second week of December here to air public sentiments against the Bill.
