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The Supreme Court ordered the Union Government to provide data on unlawful migrant inflows...
Digital Desk: Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal's remarks over 'Assam originally was part of Myanmar' sparked controversy recently.
The matter started when the Supreme Court ordered the Union Government to provide data on unlawful migrant inflows to Assam and the North-Eastern states after March 25, 1971.
The Supreme Court of India, led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, commenced hearings on a series of petitions challenging Section 6A of the Citizenship Act of 1955 on December 5, 2023.
Meanwhile, Senior Advocate Kapil Sibal, speaking on behalf of the respondents, stated that population mobility is ingrained in history and cannot be tracked.
He further in his statement remarked "Population migration is embedded in history and cannot be mapped. Assam was a part of Myanmar until the British conquered a portion of it, and that is how Assam was handed over to the British."
"You can imagine the amount of movement of people that occurred during the partition, and under the partition, East Bengal and Assam became one and Bengali language was taught in schools, despite widespread opposition. There is a historical context to the interaction and absorption of the Bengali population in Assam," he added.
This provision is essential because it puts into effect the Assam Accord, which allows certain foreign migrants who entered Assam between January 1, 1966, and March 25, 1971, to apply for Indian citizenship.
Indigenous groups in Assam say that this clause has legitimised the illegal movement of foreigners from Bangladesh, thereby affecting the state's demographic and cultural fabric.
Sibal went on to say, "We (Sibals) were also displaced from Lahore, and my maternal grandparents were killed. We came here as well, and during dividation, individuals of Bengali ethnicity and others tried to come... therefore to suggest that this damaged the cultural milieu of Assam is Constitutionally unavailable and I have the complete fundamental right to move from one part of the country to another."
This matter already dived deep as Assam Minister Pijush Hazarika voiced strong objections, and slammed Kapil Sibal for accusing him of ruining the state's history.
Hazarika took to his X account and wrote, Mr @KapilSibal sir has been poorly briefed & speaks a left-liberal view tends to alienate North East by conjuring such theories. At no point in Assam’s history, we were part of Myanmar."
Furthermore, Hazarika accused Sibal of alienating the Northeast by mustering up faulty theories that could undermine the region's rich cultural legacy.
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