CAB row: Manipur shutdown call withdrawn after ILP assurance

Manipur People Against Citizenship Amendment Bill (MANPAC) has withdrawn its call for total shutdown in Manipur on Tuesday, following assurance by the Centre that Inner Line Permit (ILP) system would be introduced in the state. ILP is an official travel document issued by the government to grant inward travel of an Indian citizen into a protected area for a limited period.

Yumnamcha Dilipkumar, the convenor of the organisation that has been vehemently opposing the legislation, told PTI on Monday evening it has decided to suspend the strike call on Tuesday. He said that MANPAC has convened a public review meeting on Tuesday to discuss the contentious bill tabled in the Lok Sabha on Monday, which seeks to give Indian nationality to non-Muslim refugees from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan facing religious persecution there.

The bill has exempted tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram or Tripura as included in the Sixth Schedule to the Constitution and areas covered under The Inner Line, notified under Bengal Eastern Frontier Regulation, 1873. Manipur Chief Minister N Biren Singh had earlier in the day said he was assured by Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the ILP system would be introduced in Manipur.

Singh urged people to thank the central government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, for its initiative "to protect the indigenous communities" of the state. "ILP will be openly extended in Manipur," the CM said.

He also declared a holiday at all government offices on Tuesday to mark the extension of ILP in the state. The North East Students Organisation (NESO), the apex organisation of student bodies of the region, has called an 11-hour northeast bandh from 5 am on Tuesday over the citizenship bill. Nagaland, where the Hornbill Festival is on, has been exempted.

The NESO-backed shutdown has elicited support from the opposition Congress, the Left and AIDUF..