BJP ally demands withdrawal of CAA after farm laws

The National People's Party (NPP), an ally of the BJP in the North-East, has demanded the repeal of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in the wake of the BJP government's backtracking on the farm laws after massive protests across the country.

National People's Party leader Agatha Sangma on Sunday demanded the repeal of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) at a meeting of constituents of the ruling NDA as well as at the all-party meeting convened ahead of the Winter Session of Parliament. The MP from Tura in Nagaland said that the government should keep in mind the sentiments of the people according to news agency PTI.

Sangma made the demand at the all-party meeting called by the government as well as at a meeting of the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and Union ministers Pralhad Joshi and Piyush Goyal. While no official response has come yet, detailed notes had been made of demands form various parties, Sangma told PTI.

The North-East saw bitter protests against the act throughout 2020 as political organisations and memebrs of the public viewed it as a violation of the Assam Accord of 1985 which was signed to protect the interests of the native people and their land against immigrants. The Accords specify that illegal immigrants who came to Assam between 1966 and March 24, 1971 were to be disenfranchised. The amended act however shifted the date of granting citizenship to March 2014 which protestors felt was a move to undermine the accords and grant status to many illegal immigrants.

Amendments to the Citizenship Act were passed on December 11, 2019 which triggered a wave of protests across the country as various factions accused the government of using the census measures to exclude and persecute Indian Muslims. The CAA aims to make minority communities such as Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan eligible to apply for Indian citizenship