Guwahati: The contentious Citizenship (Amendment) Bill will again find space among new bills that the Narendra Modi government is preparing to bring in the Winter Session of Parliament. The new session will begin on November 18 and end on December 13.

The government has intimated both the Houses -- Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha -- about the same. Meanwhile, Union home minister Amit Shah has repeatedly announced about the government’s will to introduce the bill. The Bill that was passed by the previous Lok Sabha in the month of January was not taken up in Rajya Sabha following massive protests in Northeast. The bill was then referred to a joint committee of Parliament and heated debates had taken place at the panel meetings.

The All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) who has been opposing the Bill will hold sit-in demonstrations in various parts of the State. AASU leaders flayed the Centre’s move to reportedly table the proposed legislation in Parliament by the end of this year.

Speaking with media persons, AASU chief adviser Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharya said that the people of Assam would not let the BJP government to do whatever they want just because they have majority in the parliament. He further stated that if CAB becomes an act then the definition of immigrants in the country will be changed and it will directly affect the demography of Assam and Northeast as a whole.

The bill seeks to amend the Citizenship Act, 1955, and grant citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christian immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who have illegally migrated into India. The subjects of the bill ranges from amending the definition of illegal migrant, reduction in the number of years of residency period to obtain Indian Citizenship through naturalisation and to empower Central government to cancel the registration of overseas citizen of India card in case of any violations.