Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga on Saturday told Union Home Minister Amit Shah that people of the state are against the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, PTI reported.

Zoramthanga met Shah at the Raj Bhavan in Aizawl and both the leaders discussed several matters.

An official statement from the chief minister’s office said the legislation could open a “floodgate of illegal immigrants” in Mizoram. Zoramthanga told reporters that Shah assured him that the legislation would be suitably tweaked to safeguard the interests of the state, News18 reported.

Earlier in the day, civil society organisations and student groups in Mizoram met the home minister and submitted a memorandum saying the Bill should not be legislated in Parliament.

A non-profit organisation called Coordination Committee said Mizoram and other north eastern states should be exempted from the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill’s ambit if it is passed in Parliament. The NGO had initially decided to hold protests after Shah had said the legislation would be introduced in the new session of Parliament. However, they later changed their decision and instead met Shah to discuss the Bill.

On Friday, largescale protests were held in Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya and Nagaland against the legislation.

The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill seeks to amend a 1955 law to grant citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, Parsis and Christians from the Muslim-majority nations of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan if they have lived in India for six years. It had been passed by the previous Lok Sabha but was not tabled in the Rajya Sabha. The bill lapsed after the term of the Lok Sabha ended in May but was not introduced in the Budget Session in July.

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