The Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) on the much-debated Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, was tabled in Lok Sabha today (Jan 7) amid protests across Assam by the AASU-led conglomerate comprising 30 groups and other organizations and individuals opposing the proposed legislation.
Rajendra Agarwal, chairman of the JPC, tabled the report in Lok Sabha amid reports that the lower house is likely to discuss the bill tomorrow (Jan 8).
#FLASH | JPC chairman Rajendra Agarwal tables report on #CitizenshipAmendmentBill in Lok Sabha.
— NEWS LIVE (@NewsLiveGhy) January 7, 2019
The tabling of the report comes in the midst of vociferous protests across Assam with the AASU-led conglomerate observing ‘Black Day’ today while calling an 11-hour shutdown in Assam tomorrow opposing the bill.
The AASU and other protesting groups burnt symbolic copies of the controversial bill in Guwahati and other places of the State.
#BREAKING | AASU, other groups and organizations protest Govt's move to table #CitizenshipAmendmentBill in Parliament, burn symbolic copies of the bill to oppose the move. AASU-led conglomerate of 30 organizations is observing 'Black Day' today. pic.twitter.com/ZE9vE90yni
— NEWS LIVE (@NewsLiveGhy) January 7, 2019
Incidentally, the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS) staged a nude protest in New Delhi, flaying the central government’s decision of going forward with the citizenship bill and tabling it in Parliament.
The bill seeks to provide Indian citizenship to people belonging to religious minority communities from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan facing persecution in those nations by amending the Citizenship Act 1955. If amended, six minority communities — Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians — from Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India instead of the 12 fixed earlier will be entitled to Indian citizenship even if they do not possess proper documents.
