Congress will oppose CAB in Parliament: Jairam Ramesh

GUWAHATI: Former Union minister and senior Congress leader Jairam Ramesh on Wednesday said that Citizenship Amendment bill (CAB) will override the special provisions that the Northeast India enjoys under Articles 371 (a) to (j) of the Indian Constitution.

Stating that the Congress will oppose the proposed Bill in the Parliament, Ramesh said “If the BJP government can scrap Article 370, which gave special provisions to Jammu and Kashmir, there is no guarantee that it will not remove Article 371 terming it as temporary.” Ramesh is part of an AICC delegation to the Northeast. The delegation is meeting Congress leaders and workers in the region.Ramesh said, “No one must trust BJP. CAB is anti-secular and against the Preamble of the Constitution. It also violates Article 14 and 21 of the Constitution.”

He added that Congress will fight CAB, which is slated to be tabled in the Parliament session starting from November 18. “We will fight CAB together with like-minded parties. The Left parties are with us, and even Trinamool Congress is against the CAB.”


In September this year, Union Home Minister Amit Shah, while addressing a gathering in Guwahati, said that the proposed CAB will not affect Article 371. “Article 370 was temporary provision and 371 is special provision, it is the right of Northeast India. Government of India will ensure that article 371 will not be hurt by CAB,” Shah had said.

The Citizenship Amendment Bill is aimed at making minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible to apply for Indian citizenship.

The bill was passed by Lok Sabha on January 8. However, due to bitter protest from several organisations in Northeast India and some NDA allies, the bill was not tabled in Rajya Sabha.

In its manifesto for the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the BJP had said, “We are committed to the enactment of the Citizenship Amendment Bill for the protection of individuals of religious minority communities from neighbouring countries escaping persecution.” Ramesh said that National Register of Citizens (NRC) and CAB are being as a tool by BJP to polarize and divide the society.