Will identify Bangladeshi infiltrators, send them back: Shah in Assam

Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday accused the Congress of treating Bangladeshi infiltrators -- whom he said threatened Assam’s people, culture, land and identity -- as a vote bank, asserting that the BJP-led Centre would identify illegal immigrants not only in Assam but across the country and send them back.

Addressing a public rally at Batadrava in Assam’s Nagaon district, Shah said the enactment of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) (IMDT) Act in 1983 had given infiltrators legal protection. The Act was later struck down by the Supreme Court.

“I assure the people of Assam from the holy land of Batadrava that the BJP government will identify all Bangladeshi infiltrators and send them back,” Shah said, alleging that the cultural identity of the Assamese people had been “gradually weakened under the influence of infiltrators”.

The Home Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had ensured the protection of Assam’s cultural identity while simultaneously pushing all-round development in the state. He also alleged that successive Congress governments failed to honour the martyrs of the Assam Movement against illegal immigration.

Shah paid homage to the martyrs at the ‘Swahid Smarak Kshetra’ in Guwahati and said a grand memorial had been dedicated to the nation this month due to the efforts of the BJP governments at the Centre and in Assam.

Taking a dig at former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Shah said despite being elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam for 12 years, Singh visited the state only seven times, including two visits for filing nomination papers. “For the Congress, Assam’s development, culture and peace remained matters of speech,” he alleged.

The Home Minister claimed that while Assam received Rs 1.28 lakh crore during the 10 years of the Congress-led UPA government, it had received Rs 15 lakh crore for development since 2014 under the Modi government.

Shah inaugurated the Rs 227-crore redeveloped Batadrava Than, the birthplace of Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva, describing it as a historic occasion. He said the site had been freed from encroachment and transformed into a world-class destination.

“Sankardeva’s birthplace was under the control of infiltrators, but today it has been freed,” Shah said, adding that the Assam government had reclaimed over one lakh bighas of land from Bangladeshi infiltrators. He claimed that even forest land in the Kaziranga National Park had been encroached upon and later cleared.

Urging voters to give the BJP another term, Shah said the party was committed to ensuring an “infiltrator-free Assam”. He reiterated that the process of identifying illegal immigrants would be extended beyond Assam to the rest of the country.

Referring to Sankardeva’s call for ‘Ek Bharat’, Shah said the Prime Minister was carrying forward that vision. He also credited the BJP governments with signing multiple peace accords in Assam, claiming that 92 per cent of their provisions had already been implemented. “Assam is no longer a land of agitation and violence,” Shah said, asserting that the state had emerged as a growth engine for the Northeast.