Biplab Kumar Deb defends Citizenship Bill amid protests all over North East

Slamming political parties of the North East for opposing the citizenship bill, Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb has said infiltration is a problem for the nation and the bill is meant to address the issue. Deb, while speaking to reporters on Friday night, said the political parties of the northeastern region is giving the impression that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 has been prepared for the region alone, which is not true.

The parties of the region are deliberately misleading the people to serve their own interests, he alleged. "The way some political parties in the northeastern region have been agitating against the bill, it appears that it has been prepared and passed in the Lok Sabha only for northeast India.

"We need to understand that the bill was introduced in the Parliament, keeping in mind the interests of the whole country," Deb told reporters at the Civil Secretariat here. He also said that every individual or political party has the right to agitate or organise a movement against any decision of the government on the basis of facts and figures, but there was an attempt to mislead people about the aims and objectives of the bill by some political parties.

Deb said infiltration is a major problem for the country and metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai are the worst affected. Jammu & Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh have been facing the problem of illegal immigration as is the northeast. The bill would help check infiltration, he said.

"Some political parties of the region were trying to catch fishes in troubled water. It is not wise to take political advantage of everything," Deb said. The bill, passed in Lok Sabha on January 8, seeks to provide Indian citizenship to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

A large section of people in the northeast has opposed the bill, saying it would nullify the provisions of the Assam Accord of 1985, which fixed March 24, 1971, as the cut-off date for deportation of illegal immigrants irrespective of religion.

(With inputs from agencies.)