GUWAHATI: Groups and organisations in Mizoram, opposed to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, will stage a protest when Union Home Minister Amit Shah visits the state on Saturday.
The protest will be staged by the influential NGO Co-ordination Committee. It has urged people to wear black shawls to register their protest against the contentious Bill.
Shah has ruffled many a feather through his recent statements indicating the Centre’s move to go ahead with the Bill, which seeks to grant Indian citizenship to immigrants, belonging to six “persecuted” non-Muslim communities, who migrated from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan till December 31, 2014.
Various organisations in the Northeast stand opposed to the Bill as it threatens the land, language and culture of the indigenous communities. They re-launched the protests on Thursday by taking to the streets in Nagaland, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.
Shah’s visit is being seen as an attempt to warm up to people vis-à-vis the Bill.
Alleged torture of Chakma students
Ahead of the Union Home Minister’s visit, the All India Chakma Students’ Union (AICSU) has requested him to “address” the alleged torture of Chakma students in Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas (JNVs) in Mizoram.
“All 34 Chakma students, including nine girls, fled the hostel of JNV Thenzawl in Serchhip district of Mizoram for their homes on October 3 due to lack of security, intimidation and threats of torture following the torture of a Class XII student, Nolin Bikash Chakma, by Mizo students with iron rods at the hostel on September 26,” AICSU vice president Tejang Chakma alleged.
He said 17 of the students, who fled the hostel, were from Lawngtlai district and as many others from Mamit district.
The AICSU alleged that the torture of Chakma students in JNVs was “regular”. In 1997, it recalled, the JNV authorities had to shift all 43 Chakma students, lodged at the hostel at JNV at Hrangchalkawn in Mizoram’s Lunglei district, to JNV at Mao Gate in Senapati district of Manipur following their alleged torture and harassment.
“There is an immediate need to end such torture in the educational institutions and create conducive atmosphere for return of all the 34 Chakma students studying at JNV Thenzawl…
“Unless the Home Minister of India ensures safe and secure environment inside the school premises run by the Central government, it shall be a failure of the Government of India to secure the future of its children,” the AICSU said in a representation submitted to Shah.
It demanded the establishment of two new JNVs at Marpara in Lunglei district and Kamalanagar in Chakma Autonomous District Council at the earliest “so that minority students can study in peace”.