Indias sovereignty is paying a heavy price because of the quality of its political discourse, wielded by "fickle minds and fragile hands" on the issue of illegal migration in north-eastern states, said Union Minister Arun Jaitley on Wednesday.
In a blog written on the National Register of Citizen (NRC), Jaitley argued that political parties opposing the NRC in Assam are going back on their earlier position, when they favoured laws designed to weed out illegal migrants. He expressed concerns over their growing number in the region.
"India's sovereignty is paying a heavy price because of the quality of its political discourse. Though Mrs. Indira Gandhi and Mr. Rajiv Gandhi took a particular position in 1972 and 1985 for the deletion and deportation of foreigners, Rahul Gandhi takes a contrary position and his party turns turtle.
"Similarly, the BJP ally of 2005, Ms. Mamata Banerjee, took a particular position. As a federal front leader, she now talks to the contrary. Can India's sovereignty be decided by such fickle minds and fragile hands?," the leader wrote in a blog shared on his Facebook page.
Jaitley's words came following disruption in Rajya Sabha earlier in the day. The House had to be adjourned following ruckus by opposition parties when BJP President Amit Shah stood up to speak on NRC.
He pointed out in his article that two of India's Prime Ministers, Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, had "committed to the nation that post March 25, 1971 migrants would be detected, identified and deported" as per the definition of such people, which came to be defined in Assam Accords signed in 1984 by Rajiv Gandhi.
To bolster his argument against illegal migrants, Jaitley cited statements made by former premiers of Pakistan and Bangladesh, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shiekh Mujibur Rahman, which showed them harbouring intention of annexing Assam or West Bengal to either of the two countries.
Training his guns further at Congress, he termed it as a party which has moved from mainstream to a "fringe position" and is now "compromising the sovereignty of India".
"Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee must realise that India's sovereignty is not a play thing. Sovereignty and citizenship are the soul of India. Imported vote banks are not," he said.
-- IANS
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