Union home minister Amit Shah, who is on a three-day visit to Gujarat, on Thursday said that infiltration situation in West Bengal had changed within days of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-led government taking office, alleging that while 5,000 to 10,000 people earlier entered the state daily, the same number were now “going back each day”.
Addressing a gathering in Ahmedabad, Shah said the impact of the political change in West Bengal was already visible. “The chief minister of Bengal has taken oath only recently, and the change is already visible — earlier, 5,000 to 10,000 infiltrators used to enter every day; now, 5,000 to 10,000 have started going back each day,” he said.
Shah said that alongside economic transformation, the country had also seen key shifts in internal security. He said terrorism had been brought under control in the past decade and that Naxalism, which remained a long-standing problem for nearly five decades, had been set on course to be eliminated by March 31, 2026, by the BJP.
“The ministry of home affairs has constituted the Demographic Change Commission, as announced by the Prime Minister recently. The Commission will study population changes, examine their causes and explore legal remedies. Steps will also be taken to address the impact of infiltration, which has altered the demographic balance of the country,” he said.
Shah also hit out at the opposition over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, saying that the opposition led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had opposed it and approached the Supreme Court.
{{/usCountry}}Shah also hit out at the opposition over the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise, saying that the opposition led by Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had opposed it and approached the Supreme Court.
{{/usCountry}}“In the West Bengal elections, the people of the state showed that they stand with the SIR. They made it clear that infiltration should not be allowed in the country,” he said, adding that the court had recently upheld its constitutional validity.
“The BJP government led by Narendra Modi has established that the right to decide the future of the country must rest only with the citizens of the country, and not with infiltrators who have entered it,” he said.
Earlier in the day, speaking at a function in Sonipur in Gujarat’s Gandhinagar district, Shah referred to the Centre’s decision to constitute a High-Level Committee on Demographic Change and reiterated the government’s position on infiltration.
He said the committee would examine demographic changes and may recommend legal measures. Shah also referred to border management, saying fencing along the Bangladesh border was progressing and detention centres had been set up, with provisions for those leaving voluntarily.
He said the West Bengal government had moved quickly on border infrastructure, stating that chief minister Suvendu Adhikari had handed over around 600 hectares of land to the Border Security Force within seven days of taking office. He added that 121 hectares of land for the Chicken’s Neck Corridor had also been handed over to the Centre.
Shah said that during the previous government’s tenure, infiltration took place regularly, but added that infiltrators had now “started returning on their own”. He said the state government had set up detention centres and was encouraging those who had entered India illegally to return voluntarily, assuring that no cases would be filed and assistance would be provided.
Shah also paid tribute to Vinayak Damodar Savarkar on his birth anniversary.
In Gandhinagar, Shah inaugurated and laid foundation stones for 84 projects worth ₹340 crore across sectors including urban development, roads, education, healthcare and railway infrastructure, with several works supported through Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds.