Citizenship Bill: Aribam Syam Sharma on Sunday said would like to return his Padma Shri

Highlights Eighty-two-year old Aribam Syam Sharma was awarded Padma Shri in 2006

Critics have called the proposal blatantly anti-Muslim

BJP's attempt to boost its Hindu voter base ahead of elections: Critics

Veteran Manipuri filmmaker Aribam Syam Sharma on Sunday said he would like to return his Padma Shri that he was awarded in 2006 in protest against the central government's Citizenship Bill. The 82-year-old made the announcement in Imphal. The filmmaker has made 14 feature and 31 non-feature films.

Protests have rocked the entire northeast against the proposal to grant citizenship to non-Muslims from neighbouring Muslim-majority countries.

Critics have called the proposal blatantly anti-Muslim and an attempt by the BJP to boost its Hindu voter base ahead of a general election due by May.

Last month, in a major embarrassment for the BJP-led government in Assam, family members of the people who lost their lives during the anti-illegal immigrant movement in the eighties - who were given an award by the Sarbananda Sonowal government in 2016 - decided to return the awards.

125 such families took out a rally in Guwahati to return the awards as a mark of their protest against the bill, which the victim families see as an insult to the memories of the 855 people who lost their lives during the Assam agitation.

The bill, which seeks to give citizenship to Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Christians and Parsis from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh, has been passed by the Lok Sabha.

The bill will be tabled for approval in the Rajya Sabha in the next session, where it is expected to face resistance from the opposition Congress party. The BJP does not have a majority in the Rajya Sabha.

While people have hit the streets to protest against facilitating the entry of outsiders, social groups allege discrimination against immigrants on religious grounds.

At least four chief ministers from the Northeast have raised their concerns on the bill until now. Recently, Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga visited the national capital in a combined effort to make the centre scrap the controversial legislation in the face of raging protests across the region.

Meanwhile, the joint platform protesting the Citizenship Bill in Manipur - the Manipur People Against Citizenship Amendment Bill (MPACAB) -- has called for a total boycott of use of Hindi language, ban on playing the National Anthem and visits of the Prime Minister and the Home minister until the Bill is withdrawn. They have also given a call for intensifying the protests.