Sushmita should clear her stand on bill: Dilip Paul

Silchar MLA and former deputy speaker of Assam Legislative Assembly Dilip Kumar Paul, on Monday, said Silchar MP Sushmita Dev should clear her stand on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The bill, which has triggered protests from a large number of organisations in Assam and the Northeast, aims to grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis, Buddhists and Christians, who fled religious persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan and entered India before December 31, 2014.

Paul, who is one of the probable BJP candidates to get the ticket for Lok Sabha elections from Silchar, told reporters at a news conference on Monday afternoon that Dev does not care about Bengali Hindus and it is time she should make her stand clear regarding the bill.

He iterated that the BJP government is committed to providing security to persecuted migrants and hoped the bill will be passed soon. “The government cares about the victims of religious persecution and necessary steps will be taken for their safety,” he said.

Dev, who is most likely to contest from the Congress in Silchar seat in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections, had said recently that she supports the bill and will not move away from her stand under any circumstances. She said this a couple of weeks back reacting to an incident in which residents of Madhurbond and members of few organisations waved black flags at her, while she was on her way to attend a meeting.

About the upcoming polls, Dev said it will not matter whoever contests from the BJP and her fight is not just against the candidate but with the entire party.

Paul also spoke about the “objectionable” slogans raised by an organisation in Silchar on Sunday. He questioned who are funding the organisation to carry out “such activities”. “Who are behind these activities,” he asked.

Members of an organisation, who took out a rally in Silchar on Sunday, had reportedly raised anti-India slogans in connection with the issue of the contentious bill.

Paul suspected that some evil forces are trying to create unrest in the state using the sensitive issue of the citizenship bill.