BJP indigenous MLA Ram Pada Jamatia wants CAB in Tripura

AGARTALA | Dec 8, 2019:

At a time when the indigenous communities of the Northeast are fuming with anger over the decision of the union cabinet to clear and table the controversial Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), 2019 in the Parliament likely by December 11, an indigenous MLA from Tripura, Ram Pada Jamatia has come out in support of the bill, much to the disappointment of the tribal leaders of the state.

Jamatia, who is also the Tripura Pradesh BJP vice president has justified his stand stating that this is not the first time that Tripura would be implementing the bill on humanitarian ground.

Referring to the union home minister, Amit Shah's explanation, Jamatia said, it was made cleared that those who have entered into the Indian territory prior to 2014 would be given citizenship.

"This is not for the first time when Tripura would be implementing the bill. In 1940, 1946, 1953, 1964 the people were given shelter and even in 1971 people came to Indian state of Tripura," he said.

Training his guns at the Congress party, the BJP MLA said that when the Congress allowed migrants to come into India in those years, "nobody questioned and now that we are trying to put an end to the continuous entry in the state, everybody seems to have a problem," he said.

The Congress, on Saturday, had condemned the role of BJP government for reviving the Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) by excluding it from Tripura Tribal Areas Autonomous District Council (TTAADC) while alleging the ruling party of playing with the sentiment of the people.

Furthermore, he said that the government has decided to pass the bill and the northeast region while exempting inner line permit and ADC areas, added Jamatia.

Meanwhile, reacting to the remarks made by the BJP MLA, Tripura royal scion, Pradyot Manikya Deb Barman has said, "It is sad that we have produced such low quality leaders who speak one language before election and another after their masters in Delhi instruct them to."

It may be reminded that Jamatia had also earlier supported the Bengali script instead of Roman script for the indigenous Kok Borok language of Tripura.