Addressing a rally in West Bengal’s Egra, Home Minister and BJP leader Amit Shah vowed that his party would expel all “infiltrators” within five years if the saffron party were to come to power in the upcoming assembly polls.
“Didi (Mamata Banerjee ) gave the slogan of ‘Maa, maati, manush’ but did change come? Can she give you freedom from infiltrators?” Shah said.
Earlier during Lok Sabha election campaigns in 2019 also, Shah told the crowd that intruders will be thrown out of India, but Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Christian refugees will be safe.
“I today want to assure Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist and Christian refugees, you will not be forced to leave India by the Centre. Before NRC is introduced in West Bengal, the Centre will implement Citizenship Amendment Bill which will ensure that people who should get Indian Citizenship will get it,” he said.
One year later after Shah’s anti-Muslim speech and polarised campaigns, BJP’s Hindu nationalist government amended the country’s citizenship law to expedite nationality for persecuted immigrants – except Muslims – from three neighbouring countries, Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.
Many have opined that the exclusion of Muslims as a group from the ambit of the law constitutes an extreme example of discriminatory treatment.
The citizenship law caused massive protests across the country. More than 100 Muslims were killed by both police and Hindu fringe groups during the protests.
The state has remained on the fringe on the issue as it is believed to host a large population of Bangladeshi immigrants, who have been assured by the ruling Trinamool Congress that they will not be thrown out.
