BJP General Secretary and in-charge of the party’s affairs in the northeast, Ram Madhav
Amid an increasing clamour from its leaders to replicate the National Register for Citizens (NRC) exercise in all states to identify “illegal migrants”, the BJP on Wednesday said the “mandate for the NRC exercise was only for Assam for the time being”. The party, however, said the law and order machinery would “identify all Rohingya Muslims living in the country and deport them”.
BJP General Secretary and in-charge of the party’s affairs in the northeast, Ram Madhav told The Indian Express said that though NRC had the word ‘national’ in its name, its mandate was only for Assam only as of now.
“The process (of NRC) was originally limited to Assam only as it was the result of the Assam Accord signed in 1985. The process, right now, is limited to Assam only,” he said.
Madhav, however, said the Home Ministry has already decided to identify Rohingya Muslims who have entered the country illegally.
Assam residents queue up Monday to to check if their names are in NRC. AP
“Rohingya infiltrators in all the states will be deported. But you don’t need an NRC exercise for it. Law and order machinery of the country, the Home Ministry, will identify them and deport them,” Madhav said. “No country in the entire world will allow illegal immigrants on its soil.”
Earlier, BJP General Secretary and in-charge of West Bengal Kailash Vijayvargiya had claimed that there should be an exercise to “identify illegal migrants from Bangladesh in West Bengal” as well. The idea was seconded by several party leaders, including BJP’s Delhi chief Manoj Tiwari.
On Wednesday, Tiwari demanded that the Aam Aadmi Party government should also identify and evict Rohingya and Bangladeshis living illegally in the national capital.
Rajasthan Home Minister Gulab Chand Kataria recently called illegal migrants “traitors” and said other states should consider following Assam’s example.
The first draft of Assam’s NRC was published on December 31, 2017, and names of 1.9 crore of the 3.29 crore applicants were incorporated. The final list, released on Monday, left out more than 40 lakh people.