AS-CITIZENSHIP-APPEAL

An organisation of eminent

citizens of Assam Wednesday urged the Rajya Sabha chairman

Venkaiah Naidu not to allow placing of the Citizenship

(Amendment) Bill in the Upper House to amend the Citizenship

Act, 1955.

The Bill, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on

Tuesday, seeks to grant Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from

Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan.

It has to be passed in the Rajya Sabha to become an

Act.

"We appeal to you as the constitutional guide of the

rules and conventions of the Rajya Sabha that the ruling party

should be stopped from placing the bill for amending the

Citizenship Act, 1955," Chairman Dr Hiren Gohain and Convenor

Manjit Mahanta of the Forum Against Citizenship Act Amendment

Bill said in a letter to the RS chairman.

The Forum is a platform comprising eminent

litterateurs, academicians and journalists.

Later addressing a press conference, Gohain, an

eminent litterateur, said there is no other way left, but to

carry forward a prolonged battle against the government's

move.

The Forum will also the Supreme Court if the Bill

becomes an Act, Gohain said.

Another organisation, the Prabajan Virodhi Manch -

Forum Against Infiltration, Wednesday claimed that it would be

difficult for the Bill, after it becomes an Act, to stand

judicial scrutiny.

"The bill has created the ground for seeking revision

of the cut off date for grant of citizenship to migrants from

Bangladesh from 25th March 1971 at present in respect of Assam

to 19th July 1948 as prevalent in other states of India," the

Manch said in a statement.

This nullifies provisions of the Assam Accord, it

claimed.