Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu
Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu (File Photo)
DIMAPUR, JANUARY 7 (MExN): Naga People’s Front President, Dr Shürhozelie Liezietsu today stated that the effects of the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) would “come very slowly in the form of population politics.”
In a press statement, the NPF president said that the people of the North East in general and the Nagas in particular must understand the “true colour” of the CAA, with a long term perspective look.
“Those who supported and passed the Bill in both Houses of Parliament recently may like to put forth so many convincing points, like incorporation of ILP (BEFR 1873 in the Act, exemption of Nagaland State, introduction of ILP in Manipur State etc. It may sound good but all these are fort cover up of the real motive behind this Act,” he said.
“When you buy the Chilly, it burns the mouth and you feel the pain instantly. But the pain will not remain long when you drink or eat something again. But the effect of CAA on the people will be just opposite to the corresponding effect of biting a chilly. It will come very slowly in the form of ‘population politics,’” Liezietsu claimed.
He stated that the people would not feel the pain instantly; “but the pain will develop with very low intensity and without much awareness for a long time but it will keep ion increasing its impact, its intensity of pain year by year in due course of time.”
“We know that people will not feel the effect in a year or two. It will burn your mouth only after 15-20 years and slowly the pain will spread all over your body with no medicine to cure,” he added.
The NPF president feared that it may uproot the Naga people’s very existence unless a strong stand against the CAA is taken.
“Therefore, it will be of no use to argue over merits and demerits of the Act at this juncture. The more important thing is how to check the danger which is looming over the horizon of the future,” he stated.
Liezietsu meanwhile stated that the CAA was brought in “purely on religious line, a single track minded action to promote the interest of one particular religion, based on the theory of ‘one nation, one religion’”.
“India is known as the largest democracy in the world. The greatness of India lies in ‘Unity in Diversity’. To destroy this unity in diversity is to destroy the greatness of India,” he said. The NPF president termed it “most unfortunate that those people that are in power in Delhi today are destroying this very foundation of democracy and the greatness of India.”
“We have seen that the Indians who stand for democracy and secularism are very much agitated today. In the same measure, Naga people are ashamed of what was done by some of her leaders in supporting this process of destroying democracy of the country,” he added.
Liezietsu then pointed to the density of population in different areas of the country.
Almost the whole North East India is sparsely populated, he stated, and informed that the present population figure of Nagaland according to 2011 census is 19,78,502 only and the density of population is 119 per Sq.km.
“The population of Kolkata city alone in 2015 is 146,17,882, i.e the population of a single city is more than seven times bigger than the population of Nagaland State. These figures are given only to demonstrate the actual comparative size of our population with no rancor towards any city,” Leizietsu added.
He further pointed out that UP has a population of 1661,97,921 and “obviously it cannot accommodate more people besides land problem they have been facing, however big the state may be.”
“On the whole, India is over populated and, therefore, the Government advocates family planning in order to stabilize her population but on the other hand CAA will open the floodgate for a particular religious community to enter India to add to the present over populated figure,” he added.
The NPF president questioned that when big states like UP and Bihar etc do not have space to accommodate those people, “where will these people go?” A close look at all these aspects will make us believe that North East will remain vulnerable; a real threat which we do not want our children to face, he deduced.
He further stated that the CAA also indulges in the “politics of divide.”
“I want to challenge the Nagas who supported this Act to come out and declare their stand openly. For NPF, we do not want to act from behind the screen and, therefore, we take this stand that for the sake of our future generations, we will go against this CAA however small we may be,” he asserted.
