Shah accuses Congress of encouraging infiltration

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 governments 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”.