Shillong, August 17: The North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) has revived the demand to scrap the Citizenship Amendment Act,2019 (CAA) from all the north-eastern states. In Meghalaya a sit-in demonstration was held by the Khasi Students’ Union which is a member of NESO in which other organisations such as the FKJGP, HNYF, JSU and others also took part.
In the sit-in demonstration held near the statue of U Kiang Nangbah opposite the Shillong Civil Hospital, speeches were heard from leaders of the pressure groups and also from the Chairman of NESO, Samuel Jyrwa.
The demonstration of NESO was held in all the states of the North East today the 17th of August, 2022 to pressure the Indian Government into accepting the many pending demands of the people of the region. The demands which NESO has raised in this demonstration include protection from influx of migrants by implementing the Inner Line Permit in all the states of the North East, to promptly revoke the Armed Forces Special Power Act (AFSPA) 1958 from the region, to scrap the CAA, to resolve the boundary issue among others.
The Chairman of NESO, Samuel Jyrwa in his speech at the gathering in Shillong said that the people residing in the land of the Hynñiewtrep were made Indians by force and not by their own free will. He said the people of the land of the Hynñiewtrep were made Indians in the year 1948, and on the 9th of August, 1947, the Indian Government and the Khasi Syiems signed a ‘standstill agreement’ which gave the Syiems of the Khasi Himas a period of 2 years to think and decide about joining with India or to think otherwise, however just within a few months, the Indian Government forced the Instrument of Accession (IOA) to be signed with the Khasi Himas at gunpoint.
The leader of NESO said that it is sad now that the IOA which was forced to be signed by the Indian Government has not been actualised and the terms of the agreement have not been honored till date.
Jyrwa also said that the north-eastern states have received only oppression, discrimination and abandonment from the Indian Government. He also said that the demand to protect their indigeneity has not been granted yet to Meghalaya by the Indian Government, which includes the implementation of the ILP and recognition of the Khasi language in the 8th Schedule of the Indian Constitution, but instead CAA is implemented which protects the religious minorities of other countries.
