CAB: Our safety valve please

Free Thinker *

Now we have learnt from the media and from our political leadership that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill (CAB), 2019 is likely to introduce in Parliament for consideration and passing in this Winter Session itself.

We hope the concerns of the people of Manipur might have been addressed. There has been serious apprehension in the minds of the people that CAB will encourage huge illegal immigration into the State. Let us not go into the pros and cons of such an alarming apprehension.

We never question the belief of the people; people of Manipur including some leaders strongly believe that a mass illegal immigration will take place and as a result Manipur will be inundated with foreigners ( Jains, Buddhists, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs and Parsis) from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, who had already arrived in India before 31 Dec 2014.

The xenophobia is not unfounded if we take into the consideration of the 19 lakh illegal immigrants already identified in Assam (who had already come in Assam). Such identification has not been done in Manipur and in the rest of Northeast India. However, the issue in front of us is about the absorption of the humongous illegal population as citizens of the country.

Take my word the majority of the identified illegal immigrants of Assam will now turn out to be either Hindus or Jains or Christians or Buddhists or Sikhs or Parsi. Now-a-days we also find reports saying that out of 19 lacs 12 lacs are Hindus. We don’t know how far it is true.

Once they are declared as Bona fide citizens, they will be allowed to settle anywhere in the country under Art 19 of the Constitution. Constitutionally every citizen has the right to move anywhere and live anywhere in the country, except in some tribal areas and restricted notified areas.

Now it seems the new Bill contemplates an exception to the sixth scheduled tribal areas of the Northeast and Inner Line notified States. In other words, the Sixth Scheduled areas in the Northeast and Inner Line permit States of Arunachal, Nagaland and Mizoram will be kept out from the ambit of the new Citizenship law.

For us the pertinent question is – what about Manipur? which is neither protected by sixth schedule nor by Inner Line permit system. Is there any clause or provision in the proposed legislation to ease the apprehension of the people of Manipur?

Mass illegal intrusion may or may not take place but enough protection is required for any eventuality. Cultural identity, historical tradition and myriad customary practices of various ethnic groups of Manipur must be protected. That is the reason why there has been a lot of hue and cry in the State about CAB.

The fear is that the new citizens might immerse the tiny ethnic minorities. Everyone knows that the Tripuris of Tripura are now a minority in their own State. Earlier they were the majority people in the erstwhile princely State of Tripura. Today in Arunachal the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have become demographically dominant in few districts. Assam is already flooded with outsiders.

Considering the anxiety of the people of Manipur the Union Government might do something concrete to taper off the xenophobia. Any of the following instruments may be adopted:

1. The entire State may be notified as a protected zone disallowing settlement of any outlander under the Constitution (by expanding the scope and purpose of Art 371 C) keeping in view the unique history of the people of this quondam Kingdom.

2. Or the ENTIRE State (no separate autonomy for hills or valley) may be put under sixth schedule recognizing the whole population as indigenous people invoking relevant provisions of the Constitution.

3. Otherwise the Govt of India may give us an easier safety valve by just reviving the inner line permit system for Manipur which was in vogue till November 18, 1950.

Moreover, it is pertinent to remind here that the Merger Agreement itself contemplates continuance of pre-merger laws, customary practices and conventions of the erstwhile Princely State of Manipur. Inner line permit system was a pre-merger law of Manipur which was perhaps arbitrarily quashed.

HOPE DILI IS LISTENING TO US. And we believe that our five MPs (Mary Kom ji , Bhabananda ji , Lorho ji , Ranjan ji and Raju ji ) must be conveying the sentiment of the people of Manipur to Dili.