NEW DELHI: BJP chief Amit Shah on Thursday vowed to trace and drive out infiltrators if BJP returns to power after the 2019 general elections.
Addressing a poll rally, Shah said, “Let the Congress cry, we are not going to stop. You elect Narendra Modi’s government in 2019 and it will trace and drive out infiltrators not only from Assam but from the entire country,” Shah said at a public rally in Barnagar constituency of Ujjain district. “Infiltrators were pushed into the country after 1971 and have been patronised and converted into vote banks of opposition parties like Congress and Trinamool,” reported Times Of India.
On the National Register of Citizens in Assam that excluded over 40 lakh in the final draft, Shah said. “Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee, TDP president Chandrababu Naidu and Samajwadi Party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav “whined as if their granny had died”.
“All of them (objected to the NRC). As if their granny died. Why were they all in pain?” the BJP chief wondered. “Let the Congress cry, we are not going to stop. You elect Narendra Modi’s government in 2019. It will trace and drive out infiltrators not only from Assam, but from the entire country,” Shah said.
Critics of the citizenship registry say the move seeks to drive out immigrant Muslims from Assam and was majorly supported by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) — which rules the state.
The Assam government started the process of updating the NRC in December 2013. All residents in the state were asked to produce documents proving that they or their families had lived in India before March 24, 1971.
On December 31, 2017, it released the first draft containing 1.90 crore names.