AABHA lauds Centre, state government over citizenship bill, slams Sushmita Dev

By barakbulletin On January 9, 2019 - 8:53 pm

The All Assam Bengali Hindu Association (AABHA), on Wednesday, heaped praises on the Centre and state government for taking up the issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill with priority and making continuous efforts to provide security to persecuted migrants.

The bill, which has been a bone of contention between Brahmaputra Valley and Barak Valley, aims to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and entered India before December 31, 2014. It was passed by the Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

The association’s president Basudev Sharma told reporters at a press conference in Silchar that there have been “clouds of jeopardy” over the existence and fate of persecuted migrants for years and it is because of the efforts of the Centre and the state government that they are going to get relieved, he said.

He also took a dig at the Congress and Trinamool Congress, especially Silchar MP Sushmita Dev, for raising objections over the bill.

Dev had said on Tuesday that the bill is nothing but a “futile exercise”. She said the bill in its present form will in all likelihood clash with Article 14 of the Constitution and Clause-5 of the Assam Accord.

Sharma said those opposing the bill have proved that they are “anti-Hindus” for which they are going to face adverse consequences, apparently targeting Dev in context to the upcoming Lok Sabha elections this year. Dev is most likely to contest from Silchar.

Santanu Sutradhar, the association’s general secretary, echoed Sharma saying that the masses would not forgive the anti-Hindu elements.

Other members Partha Sarathi Das, Santanu Roy, Sandipan Dutta Purkayastha, Ratan Dutta and Prankrishna Paul were also present.

Meanwhile, widespread protests against the bill took place on Tuesday and Wednesday in different parts of Assam and the Northeast. In Barak Valley, the situation was alright barring few stray incidents of picketing.