Every illegal migrant will be evicted before next LS polls, says Shah

Kaithal/Loharu/Meham (Har), Oct. 9 (PTI): Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Wednesday said every illegal migrant in the country will be sent home before the next parliamentary elections as he invoked the NRC, Article 370 and the Rafale purchase during assembly poll rallies here.

The BJP president tore into the Congress, accusing its leaders of seeing the shastra puja performed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on India’s first Rafale fighter jet as a farce.

For the opposition, it was a ‘tamasha’. It is not their fault. They know more about Italian culture and have less information about Indian culture, the BJP president said in Loharu.

Campaigning in the state ahead of the October 21 assembly polls, he also accused the Congress of being concerned over the interests of just one family , a reference to the Gandhis.

He said the Congress and other dynasty-based parties are eating into democracy like termites .

In Kaithal, he made it clear that illegal immigration and the implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) remained a Bharatiya Janata Party priority.

When we come again to seek your votes in 2024, I want to say before then we would have evicted every single intruder from this country, he said.

Shah also addressed a public meeting in Meham, as the BJP stepped up its campaign for another term in the state.

Referring to the row in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC), he said, For 70 years, these intruders have put a question mark on our security.

The BJP government is committed to evicting all of them from country through the NRC, he added.

Should these intruders be evicted or not? Shah asked the gathering, accusing the Congress and its local candidate and senior leader Randeep Singh Surjewala of opposing the NRC implementation.

Ask the Congress people why they opposed the triple talaq (bill) scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A. Why are they opposing the NRC? he said.

Shah said the Congress is upset over the traditional weapon-worship ceremony performed by Rajnath Singh when he was handed over the first Rafale fighter in France on Tuesday.

Rajnath Singh ji performed shastra pooja in France but the Congress people felt very bad about this too, he said, referring to remarks by some leaders from that party.

Should the shastra pujan tradition be observed or not? Should we keep this tradition alive or not? he said. But the Congress is opposing this too.

Shah wanted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to make clear whether he is for or against Article 370, recently nullified by the BJP government.

“The Congress has to oppose whatever the BJP does,” he said.

Shah said no previous government had dared to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, but the Narendra Modi government acted in the first session of Parliament after coming back to power.

We expected to get the support of all parties in this because it was not the BJP’s job, but related to the country’s security, he said while singling out the Congress

He said there was a feeling among people in the country that Jammu and Kashmir was not fully integrated into the Indian Union, with Articles 370 and 35A acting as stumbling blocks.

He said several soldiers from Haryana had sacrificed their lives over Jammu and Kashmir.

Contrasting the BJP’s stand with that of the Congress, Shah said Atal Bihari Vajpayee had praised Indira Gandhi over the war against Pakistan that brought Bangladesh into being.

He said this was because it was a matter of national interest and not a Congress victory.

Shah mentioned the Balakot air strike and the surgical strike earlier against error camps across the LoC, saying the government has sent a strong message to Pakistan.

The BJP leader said Modi has undertaken fewer foreign visits than former prime minister Manmohan Singh but the perception is just the opposite.

This is because Singh’s visits failed to make an impact, he claimed.

He targeted the sitting Kaithal MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala, saying Whatever Modi ji does, Surjewala gets a stomach ache.

Shah attacked the previous state governments led by Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Indian National Lok Dal’s O P Chautala, accusing them of playing caste politics. He alleged that ‘goondaism’ and ‘corruption’ increased during their terms.

He praised the current M L Khattar government, saying it is corruption-free.