BJP will send back Bangladeshi infiltrators: Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday accused the Congress of considering Bangladeshi infiltrators, who threatened Assam’s people, their culture, land and identity, as its vote bank. Addressing a public rally in Borduwa, Shah said the Centre would identify all illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country, not only from Assam but also from the rest of India, and send them back.

Shah said that the enactment of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act in 1983 gave the infiltrators legal protection. The Act was later scrapped by the Supreme Court. “I assure the people of Assam from the holy place of Batadrava that the BJP Government will identify all Bangladeshi infiltrators and send them back,” he said. Home Minister said that the cultural identity of the State’s people was “gradually weakened under the influence of the infiltrators”.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not only ensured the protection of the cultural identity of the Assamese people but also focused on all-around development of the State, he said. “The Congress Government was in power for so long, but it did nothing in memory of the martyrs of the Assam movement against infiltrations. It was due to the efforts of the BJP Government at the Centre and the State that such a grand memorial was dedicated to the nation this month,” Shah said.

The Home Minister paid homage to martyrs of the Assam Agitation, a movement against illegal immigrants, at the ‘Swahid Smarak Kshetra in Guwahati. He asserted that the last ten years of the BJP rule in the State will be considered a “golden era”, adding “Modi has come to the North East 80 times and to Assam 36 times during the last 11 years since he became the Prime Minister”.

Taking a dig at former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Shah claimed, “The Congress talks about the welfare of the people of Assam, which had sent him to Rajya Sabha for 12 years, but he had come to the State only seven times, twice for filing his nomination papers. “For him (Manmohan Singh), Assam’s development, culture and peace were just a matter of speech as for years the State had suffered from various agitations and violence,” he alleged.

During the Congress-led UPA rule, Assam received only Rs 1,28,000 crore in 10 years, but Modi Ji has given Rs 15 lakh crore for the development of Assam since 2014, Shah claimed.

“This is the difference between the Congress and the BJP. They (Congress leaders) give speeches, but the BJP works,” he said.

The Home Minister inaugurated the Rs 227-crore redeveloped Batadrava Than, the birthplace of Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva in Nagaon district.  Shah said it was a historic occasion that the birthplace of Srimanta Sankardeva has been freed from encroachment. “Sankardeva’s birthplace was under the control of infiltrators, but today it has been freed from encroachers, and the place has been converted into a world-class tourist destination,” he said.

Shah also asserted that the State Government, led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, has “freed over 1 lakh bighas of land from Bangladeshi infiltrators”.

The illegal immigrants had even encroached forest land in Kaziranga National Park, but these plots were taken from the clutch of infiltrators by the State Government, he said. “Give the BJP another five years to ensure infiltrator-free Assam...we will identify all Bangladeshi illegal immigrants not only from Assam but also from the rest of India,” Shah told people at the rally.

Asserting that Vaishnavite saint Sankardeva had given the call of ‘Ek Bharat’ against those who wanted to break up the nation, the home minister said, “The PM is now following this call. I am lucky that I am inaugurating the project for the redevelopment of the site where the revered saint was born.”

Shah said the grand new construction will once again rekindle the faith of neo-Vaishnavism, which the saint had initiated 500 years ago across the State.

‘I had also done the ‘Bhumi pujan’ for the renovation of the site on December 26, 2020, and I am grateful to the Assam Government for giving me the chance to inaugurate the site,” he said. Batadrava Than is not a place of worship but also “a symbol of Assamese life, culture, ideals and an unifying force for all communities of the State”, he said.

He recalled the contribution of Assam’s first Chief Minister, Gopinath Bardaloi to ensure that the State became a part of India. ‘It was Bardaloi who compelled Jawaharlal Nehru to make Assam a part of the country, and I bow my head in respect to him (Bardaloi),” he said. Assam is “no longer considered a place of agitation and violence” but has become a “land of development,” Shah said. ‘There was a time when Assam was considered a problematic State in Delhi, but yesterday when I met industrialists in Gujarat, they said that Assam is the growth engine of the entire North East and taking the lead in development,” he added.