How has Amit Shah declared 40 lakh people as Bangladeshi infiltrators? Manish Tewari on NRC row

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah on Monday charged the UPA governments of not showing the courage to identify and deport illegal immigrants from Assam as per an accord which was signed by erstwhile Prime Minister late Rajiv Gandhi in 1985.

Addressing a press conference, Shah said that by overlooking the National Register of Citizens (NRC) draft in 2005, the Congress underplayed the safety and security of the Indian citizens just to "play vote-bank politics".

BJP President Amit Shah was quoted saying by ANI: “Congress TMC & other parties who are speaking against NRC should clear their stand on Bangladeshi infiltrators.

By encouraging infiltrators, how can we ensure security at the borders and internal security of the nation? I firmly believe NRC is for the security of the country. We will fully implement SC's judgement on it.”

Reacting, Congress leader Manish Tewari said: "On what empirical evidence, has Amit Shah declared 40 lakh people as Bangladeshi infiltrators? Does PM Modi promise to send these people to Bangladesh? An absurd situation has been created. It will subvert Assam & disrupt entire North East." 

Amit Shah earlier said: "The accord which was signed by Rajiv Gandhi, categorically mentioned that there will be an exercise to evict illegal Bangladeshi immigrants from Assam. It's not my words. It was written in the accord which was signed by Mr. Gandhi."

"I want to ask the Congress party on how can they question this draft when it was started by them. It is them who introduced the NRC draft in 2005. The Congress did not have enough courage to kick out the illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. They left the draft midway after introducing it."

The BJP chief further said that it is the Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led NDA Government which continued working on the draft.

"There was a PIL filed by the citizens of Assam in the Supreme Court, following which, there was a time-bound programme on which, the NDA Government under Narendra Modi started working on it. The draft has, finally, been presented to the people of Assam, in which, 40 lakh people have been deemed ineligible. Moreover, the order was pronounced by the Supreme Court and not the Government," Shah emphasised.

The draft list, which was released on Monday, has left out nearly 40 lakh people in Assam incorporating names of 2.89 crore people out of 3.29 crore applicants. The list has been updated for the first time since 1951, to account for illegal migration from nearby Bangladesh.

The opposition parties, including, the Congress have been vociferous against the draft. Congress president Rahul Gandhi, yesterday, took to Twitter to criticise the draft and said the "execution of the critical and highly sensitive exercise is tardy".

BJP chief Amit Shah today said no Indian should be worried about Assam's National Register of Citizens (NRC), asserting that names of genuine citizens will not be deleted.

"Opposition is politicising this issue for vote-bank politics. The NRC is an issue about national security and national security is most important for us," he said.

Addressing a press conference here, Shah demanded that all political parties must clarify their stand on the NRC issue.

"NRC was at the heart of the Assam Accord. No Indian citizen should be worried about the NRC. For us, NRC is key to security of the country," he said.

He also underlined that BJP's stand on this issue has always been consistent, while adding that the Congress did not have the courage to implement it and now the Modi government is doing what the Congress could not.