Pradyot Debburman Manikya is leading a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act
The royal scion of Tripura, Pradyot Manikya Debbarma, is leading a protest against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA. The official notification of the law has resulted in revival of protests in Tripura, a state that protesters believe is the most affected after Assam and West Bengal by implementation of the amended citizenship law.
Mr Debbarma was former chief of the Congress in Tripura. He left the party over differences on the National Register of Citizens (NRC).
At the rally, by far the biggest protest in Tripura against the CAA, Mr Debbarma said people who would benefit from the CAA won't be allowed to stay in the state.
On Saturday, thousands people from indigenous tribal communities participated at a massive anti-CAA protests led by Mr Debbarma, who recently launched an organisation that he says is apolitical, called the Indigenous Progressive Regional Alliance. The group, he said, will work to voice opposition against the CAA.
"The CAA will put the future of the indigenous people in danger. In Tripura, the indigenous people are already under threat and the CAA will create more trouble for them," he said.
"Our State has accommodated a large number of migrants from the then East Pakistan after the partition of the country, and has no space to accommodate any more," he added.
The indigenous tribal communities in Tripura have often said they have been marginalised since the 1950s due to large-scale settlement of non-tribals, who now comprises the majority community.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Act for the first time makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries to get citizenship if they fled to India before 2015 because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.