West Bengal and Assam say they will protect the rights of indigenous people and refugees
Demonstrators hold signs during a protest against a new Indian citizenship law in Guwahati on Friday. Picture: AFP/BIJU BORO
In the northeastern state of Assam, a planned law will prevent indigenous people from selling land to nonindigenous persons, finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said. “That means our land will be preserved for our people,” Sarma told reporters at the weekend after the state cabinet passed the measure.
“When so much of the land belongs to the state, there is no question of selling or transferring that land,” he said. “There are also several definitions of indigenous people, including tribal people, Assamese people, and others who have lived in the state for several decades. So it is not clear who the law will benefit,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
India is not a signatory to the 1951 Refugee Convention, which spells out refugee rights and state responsibilities to protect them. Nor does it have a domestic law to protect the more than 200,000 refugees it hosts, including Tibetans, Sri Lankans, Afghans, Bangladeshis and Rohingyas from Myanmar. Modi, in a rally on Sunday, said his government has introduced reforms without any religious bias.
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