Imphal/Kohima/Shillong: Two days after Union home minister Amit Shah’s announcement that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill would be brought in parliament again, protests were held in Manipur, Nagaland and Meghalaya on Thursday against the controversial piece of legislation.In Imphal Valley, members of a large number of civil society bodies and university and college students held protests amid tight police security and no untoward incident was reported from any part of the state.At Kohima, thousands of people representing various Naga tribes attired in their traditional dresses took out a protest rally under the aegis of Joint Committee on Protection of Indigenous People (JCPI), Nagaland and North East Forum of Indigenous People (NEFIP) and submitted a memorandum to Nagaland chief minister Neiphiu Rio.Organising a rally in Shillong, the NEFIP alleged the Bill will adversely impact the indigenous tribes from the region.The NEFIP claimed that it would seek the United Nations’ intervention if the Centre implements the Bill, which provides legal citizenship to non-Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan.The memorandum submitted to the Nagaland CM stated that the CAB is like a “Damocles’ sword hanging over the head of all the indigenous tribes of the northeast region”.It urged Rio to take up with the central leadership to respect the sentiment of the people in the region in general and the state of Nagaland in particular and not to pass the bill in the interest of peace and harmony in the region.Also Read: Amit Shah’s NRC Plan Decoded – Communal Division, and a Big Lie TooNEFIP vice-president Theja Therieh told a gathering that if the Bill is passed in parliament and becomes a law, undocumented immigrants settling in Nagaland will impact indigenous inhabitants.“We should speak in one voice and tell the Centre to listen to it,” Therieh said and urged the Centre not to impose the Bill or one language policy in the Northeast region.Representatives from various tribes and the Gaon Burah (village headman) Federation also conveyed solidarity to the issue saying that they will fight “tooth and nail till Nagaland is exempted from the purview of CAB”.In Meghalaya, NEFIP general secretary Robertjune Kharjahrin said, “We have decided to challenge the Bill before the Supreme Court. We will also lodge a complaint to the United Nations.”He claimed that the Bill violates Article 14 of the Constitution and also seeks to dilute the secular nature of the country.The Citizenship Bill had been passed by the Lok Sabha on January 8, 2019, but could not be placed in Rajya Sabha.The legislation seeks to facilitate the granting of citizenship to identified minorities – namely Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Christians, and Parsis – escaping religious persecution from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh and entering India before December 31, 2014.In the Imphal Valley, protestors held sit-ins, shouted slogans and formed human chains to register their renewed opposition to the Bill along with Mizoram and Nagaland at the call of Manipur People Against Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.NEFIP president Ningthouja Lancha said that widescale protests will be held by the people against the legislation as they are quite apprehensive of the Bill and people’s stand on it must be communicated to the central leaders.Chief minister N. Biren Singh had said in February that the government’s stand on the Bill is not different from that of the people. The BJP is an alliance partner in the Manipur government.