Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari (Express Photo By Amit Mehra)
Echoes of Assam’s NRC process were felt in Delhi Wednesday as Delhi BJP chief Manoj Tiwari raised the issue of “illegal immigration of Bangladeshis and Rohingya” and demanded their eviction. Saying that “illegal immigrants were depriving the poor in India”, Tiwari wrote to Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, welcoming his stance on “identification and deportation” of “foreign infiltrators” and asking for a similar “campaign be launched (in Delhi) to deport them”.
The Delhi Congress, meanwhile, said it was a “non-issue” in the capital. “Never has any party raised this in public domain because it’s a non-issue. This is an attempt to take attention away from failures of the central government and the municipal corporations,” Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said.
While the AAP has opposed NRC in Parliament — with AAP MP Sanjay Singh speaking of BJP’s “divisive politics” and joining TMC in its protest — in Delhi the party’s reaction was relatively subdued. AAP spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj said, “This is an ongoing process which is with the Union government, where illegal foreign nationals are deported.”
But Amanatullah Khan, the party MLA from Okhla where a number of Rohingya camps are located, said, “How does the BJP know they are infiltrators from Bangladesh? They have election cards and Aadhaar cards. This is a blatant attempt to communalise the matter and attack poor Muslims.”
“If they really want to deport someone, they should deport the RSS. Bangladesh was a different country in 1947. Until then, they fought for India’s Independence, the construction of India as a nation as we know it today. Where was the RSS then? They didn’t fight, so why not deport them?” he added.