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Will find illegal infiltrators from all corners of India and deport them: Amit Shah in Assam
Training guns at the Opposition, Shah said the Congress kept on encouraging these illegal infiltrators for years.
Union home minister Amit Shah on Monday assured that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre will detect illegal infiltrators from all corners of India and deport them back to their home country.
Speaking at a public gathering in Assam, Shah said, “It is the BJP’s resolve to detect and deport ‘ghuspethiye’ (illegal infiltrators) not just from Assam, but from the entire country.
Shah inaugurated the redevelopment project of Batadrava Than, the birthplace of 15th-16th century neo-Vaishnavite saint-scholar and socio-religious reformer Srimanta Sankardev in Borduwa of Nagaon district in Assam.
The home minister lauded the BJP-led government in Assam under chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for evicting illegal encroachers, some with antecedents in Bangladesh, from around 145,000 bighas of forest and government land. (around 47,850 acres).
“Was it okay to have Bangladeshi infiltrators in the sacred birthplace of Srimanta Sankardev? I want to thank the government of Himanta Biswa Sarma for evicting encroachers from this place and setting up the ‘naam-ghar’ (prayer house),” he said.
Training guns at the Opposition, he said, “The Congress kept on encouraging these illegal infiltrators for years. They introduced the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act in 1983, thus paving a legal way of allowing illegal infiltrators to settle.”
The IMDT Act, which was applicable only in Assam, laid the burden of proving someone an illegal foreigner on the complainant, instead of the person who illegally entered India. In 2005, based on a petition by former Assam chief minister and current Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal, the Supreme Court struck it down as unconstitutional.
In recent months, the BJP-led government in Assam has been pushing back people declared illegal foreigners by tribunals to Bangladesh using provisions of the Immigrants Expulsion from Assam Act (IEAA).
The ₹217-crore Batadrava Than redevelopment project aims to transform the place into a world-class spiritual and cultural destination. The site, whose foundation stone was laid by Shah in December 2020, aims to highlight the life, teachings and cultural heritage of Sankardev. Spread across 162 bighas (around 54 acres) of land free from encroachers.
The project has been conceptualised as a tree with a 25-metre tall Guru Asana (Seat of the Guru) at the centre from which other buildings, which draw inspiration from Sattriya dance, Japi (a traditional headgear) etc. branch out.
Later in the day, the Union home minister will fly back to Guwahati where he will pay homage at the Swahid Smarak Kshetra, a memorial dedicated to over 860 people killed during the Assam Agitation against illegal infiltrators. The project was inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi earlier this month.
Following that, Shah will inaugurate the new ₹111-crore building of the Guwahati police commissionerate, and the integrated command and control system (ICCS) built at a cost of ₹189 crore to boost Guwahati’s security. In the evening, he will inaugurate the ₹291-crore Jyoti Bishnu Cultural Complex, a 5,000-seater auditorium in Guwahati, which is the biggest in eastern India, before heading to West Bengal.
