Manipur: Former CM Ibobi Singh Demands PM Modi to Withdraw Citizenship Bill

Imphal, November 21, 2019:

Manipur's Congress Legislative Party (CLP), headed by formed CM Okram Ibobi Singh on Friday wrote to the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, complaining that the "ghost" of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill still continues to haunt the region. Furthermore, the Manipur Congress reiterated its stand to oppose the Bill.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister, the party also rued that the Bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from neighboring countries, violates the "secular" nature of the Indian Constitution. "It fails to identify and separate political and economic migrants", the Congress lamented.

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Adding that the Bill poses an "immense threat" to the indigenous people of the Northeastern states in India, the CLP memorandum added that the Bill, once enacted, would turn the the Northeast into a "dumping ground of illegal Bangladeshis".

Furthermore, the CLP party forewarned that once the Bill comes into effect, it will negate the long-standing demand of the people of Manipur to "identify and deport foreigners with 1951 as base year", and cautioned that it would plunge the state into "chaos and anarchy".

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Stating the that Bill would violate the Article 14 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees equality to all, irrespective of caste, creed, and religion, the party alleged that bringing the Bill would also favour "illegal migrants", and cause a catastrophic impact on  the "demography, language, socio-economic and political structure of the country in general, and Manipur in particular.

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