Shillong Feb 15: Chief minister Conrad Sangma said that the claim of Congress that the Citizenship Amendment Bill was stopped in Rajya Sabha because of it has undermined others including students’ bodies and organisations and political parties that have together put in efforts in opposing the Bill.

Conrad had led a delegation from the North East to Delhi to meet several political leaders and MPs to seek their support to oppose the CAB recently and he was considered “hero” especially after Bill was not passed in Rajya Sabha.

“I have repeatedly been saying that it is not one person responsible for this. Everybody has done their part and one person or one level or one party that moves forward but a collective effort. I think pressure and movement from the allies (of the NDA) and from within is something important to the people of North East. We have seen the situation, and we are not here to blame anybody or say it is because of A, B, C, D. But it is an effort from everybody. What important is the unity that was shown when this issue came up and it was amazing to see the kind of unity that was there from student bodies, organizations, political parties have shoulder to shoulder fighting for this cause. That was really a strong message that I would like to stick to.”

On Leader of Opposition, Mukul Sangma’s statement that the Bill would have been passed in Rajya Sabha if Congress was not there, the Meghalaya Chief Minister said, “I am not the kind of person who plays politics with important issues like these, but we all know even within the Congress, there are people who supported the Bill. But I do not want to get into politics, and here we all stood together and I have been maintaining from day one that it is a team effort that we found so many political parties and organisations come together.”

He also said that “to say that it was because of me, or we, it is really undermining the efforts of even the other organizations like the student bodies who have work really hard at the grass root level, the efforts of the church who have really prayed and really work hard so that this Bill would not come through, the efforts of different organizations and headmen. I think so many people have contributed and we must appreciate the contribution made by everybody. By making such statements, you are simply undermining the effort of all oragnisations and political parties that have done so much to ensure this bill was not passed when they themselves did not even move to Delhi to oppose this Bill.”

On Mukul’s terming BJP allies as ‘wolf in sheep’s clothing’, Conrad said, “when we are part of the government we will work for the development of the people but when an issue and a stand has taken which would affect our people, we would never keep quite. Yes development has its one part, but there are certain issues which are not acceptable to us as a political party and not acceptable to most of the people in the North East.”

On NPP stand to come out if NDA but continues to remain now after the Bill was not passed, the NPP leader said that from development aspect, the coalition was formed and working together but when it comes to issues that harm our people, we will stand unitedly against it.

He also said that the CAB would be accepted only after the present bill is changed and by taking the people of the Northeast into consideration.