MANPAC Convenor Warns Northeast Will Burn Once Again if CAB is Re-Introduced

Imphal, June 18, 2019:

The Manipur People’s Alliance against CAB (MANPAC) has warned the Government of India that there would be massive and sustained civil protest movements in case the contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is introduced and passed without first consulting and obtaining consent of the people of Manipur and other Northeastern States.

Speaking to media persons on Monday at their Kwakeithel office, MANPAC convenor Yumnamcha Dilipkumar quoted a news report broadcast in a national news channel that the Bill would be reintroduced in the Parliament tomorrow or within the current session which began yesterday.

"In case the Government of India passes the Bill without first consulting the people of Manipur and the State Government, mass civil movements which are 100 times fiercer than the protest movements waged against the same Bill in the beginning of the current year will literally put the entire North East region on fire", Dilipkumar said.

Saying that there is no change to MANPAC’s position regarding CAB 2016, the convenor said that MANPAC would continue its protests against the Bill.

The Citizenship (Amendment) is not a legislation which is specific to the North East region but it encompasses the whole country, he asserted.

The promise to reintroduce CAB 2016 was one major factor which helped BJP win a landslide victory in the Lok Sabha election. Even if the Bill does not harm other regions of the country, it would prove to be disastrous for the North East, Dilipkumar said.

As such, it is MANPAC’s non-negotiable position that the Bill should not be implemented in Manipur under any circumstances, he asserted.

The same resolution of not allowing CAB in Manipur and the North East region was adopted repeatedly at several conferences and review meetings held by MANPAC together with different civil society organisations of other Northeastern States. MANPAC would uphold the same resolution with all its strength, said the convenor.

The Convenor further asserted that the MANPAC would now launch an extensive awareness campaign on CAB 2016 and the modes of civil protest movements that may be launched in case CAB in reintroduced in Parliament would be determined in the course of the awareness campaign, he said.

It also came to light that preparations have been made to launch a massive civil movement against the Bill under a common decision of all the North East States.

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