ILP diverts CAA issue in NE

The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) saw protests in the northeastern states during its introduction, but the protests shifted to Assam only when Parliament took it up again. It has rekindled the anti-foreigner sentiment of the 1980s.

Amit Shah recently revealed about the massive impact of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam, Tripura, and West Bengal as the Centre proposes to keep out the Inner Line Permit (ILP) States of Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur and Meghalaya from the purview of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019. Besides, the act will not be implemented in the Sixth Schedule tribal autonomous regions.

After CAA has beenexempted from other NE states with ILP, the agitating situation in those stateshave calm down except Assam; where protest against CAA is still burning.

Except in Bengalispeakers' dominated Tripura, people fromdifferent walks of life in the state fear CAA will lead to lakhs ofHindus from Bangladesh swamping indigenous communities, burdening resources andthreatening their language, culture and tradition. CAA has a 2014 cut-off datebut protesters say Assam bore the brunt of immigrants from 1951 to 1971, whileother states did not, and it is unfair to impose more on the state. Protesterssay they do not trust the Centre and CAA will violate the Assam Accord.