The coming winter session of parliament will be keenly watched by Northeast as it is in this sitting the much disliked Citizenship Amendment Bill will be introduced by central government, an yet another attempt to make it a law. Since the floating of the proposition, a vehement apathy on the part of the entire populace of the region had been witnessed and no surveys or polls will be necessary to corroborate it. There will be few parallel to single out when a single issue has placed the entire NE populace on a platform with this emphatic unanimity of rejection. Nevertheless, with no visible hopes of its shelving the reality, it’s now a very important task for the collective leadership of the region to persuade the propounders of the idea to keep this part of the country beyond its purview. Hectic activities to face the ‘exigencies’ that are presumably waiting to be unfolded can be witnessed in all these states including Arunachal. It is a matter of hope that Monday’s all-party meeting had decided to display the ‘No CAB’ placard for the Delhi bosses to take notice. Practically, it is perhaps the only way left at hand now and this united display of solidarity cutting across individual political ideologies must be kept alive and kicking, at least for the time until the issue is exhaustively solved.

Whether CAB is going to be a big blot on the secular idea of India or whether it is unconstitutional is not the point that immediately concern NE and better be left for legal luminaries to argue. That what is not difficult to foresee is the negative aftermath this contentious legislation can bring. Citizenship will be conferred to immigrants having certain chosen and specific religious affiliations, with the idea of pushing forward ‘certain agendas’. And there will be very little doubt about who is going to pay the most hefty price for it. It is not the mainland for sure and almost the entire ‘shock’ will strike the NE with most negative consequences. This is not the treatment the region deserves which is already miles behind what may be called real development. What it zealously guards, even with a small population is its indigenous culture which forms the bedrock of its existence. But the fear is, which is nothing illegitimate either, after CAB that socio-cultural-economic ways of existence may turn out to be extremely arduous to continue in face of a huge influx which can never be called a human resource capital.

This is an existential issue and better be understood in the light of the region’s realities. Anxiety will climb, but the voice against CAB must remain united with high pitch so that it reaches the corridors of power at Delhi.