The Bharatiya Janata Party’s much awaited vision document for Saturday’s Assembly polls stirred controversy by referring to people from North-East India in the national Capital as “immigrants”. As the North-Easterners fumed and the Congress demanded an apology along with removal of the words, the BJP was seen in damage control mode by not only calling it a “clerical error” but also going forward to quickly arrange a North-East Milan Karyakram on Tuesday.
Printed in bold typeface, “North-Eastern Immigrants To Be Protected” is what one finds on skimming through the pages of BJP’s 24-page document, which, Chairman of the Vision Document Committee, Dr Harsh Vardhan explains has “out-of-the-box” ideas that would make Delhi a world-class city.
The particular section talks of special cells in all police stations and 24-hour helpline numbers to be set up for protection of North-Eastern migrants. “To safeguard the students of N-E origin, special guardianship will be arranged with local families for them,” the document read further. Hours after it was released, social media went abuzz owing to the party’s blooper.
Noted journalist and BJP spokesperson MJ Akbar said the party was withdrawing the word, and that it was “mistakenly used”. “The brothers and sisters of the North-East are the pride of Delhi. The word was mistakenly used. We withdraw the word, and we repeat that their welfare is as important as that of any citizen of Delhi and the country,” Akbar said.
To pacify the young voters from the North-East residing in the Capital, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) organised an exclusive event for them in Delhi BJP’s office at Pt Pant Marg. BJP leader and Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiren Rijiju, who is from Arunachal Pradesh and was present in the event, said the word was a “typo” and “clerical error”. The organisers, however, claimed that the meet was not arranged after the controversy but was planed “days before”.
Earlier in the day Maken had said, “We demand that they remove that line from the manifesto and apologise to public. If the ruling party is saying such things in its manifesto then on what basis (Sushma) Swaraj is talking to China about how its force enters the State of Arunachal Pradesh and other areas, we need to understand that.”
The national Capital has witnessed a spate of racial attacks and discrimination against people from north east in the recent past and a N-E student Nido Tania, son of an Arunachal MlA, died after being badly beaten by shopkeepers at a lajpat Nagar market here. The Centre had formed a special committee headed by North-Eastern Council member MP Bezbaruah to recommend steps to address the concerns of people from N-E region living across the country.