“Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh and Christian refugees need not be afraid”: Amit Shah

Guwahati, 23 January 2019:

Kick-starting the West Bengal phase of campaign before the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Tuesday held a rally in Malda and took on the Mamata Banerjee led government in the state.

Apart from criticizing the Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in the state, Amit Shah’s speech revolved mostly around the Bengali refugees and BJP government’s healing touch named Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 to provide citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Christian and Buddhist refugees from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

Attacking the Mamata Banerjee led government in West Bengal, Amit Shah said that TMC are very fond of infiltrators. To expel the infiltrators, NRC was brought but they misled the people of Bengal by saying Bengalis will be driven out.

The BJP president made another controversial remark in the rally that targets a particular religion and indirectly threatens their presence in the country. Shah said “I want to assure all refugees living in Bengal — Hindu, Buddhist and Sikh — that they need not be afraid. We have brought the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill to grant citizenship to each and every refugee. No one will be left out. Whether the person is a Buddhist, Sikh or Christian, those who have been oppressed and have come from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh will be granted citizenship by the BJP’s Narendra Modi government.”

Asking the West Bengal CM to clear her stand on the Citizenship Bill, he alleged “Mamata Banerjee will oppose the bill because she is only concerned about her vote bank.”

These type of comments are nothing new from BJP leaders and the party president who previously too have targeted a particular religious community of the country and has brought as sense vulnerability and polarization among the people.

At a time when whole of Northeast India is opposing the Citizenship Bill for being communal and anti-constitutional, Shah’s remarks may spark another fire in the country as BJP’s stand on the Bill has always pushed the secularism of this country into the pits for supporting particular religious communities in the name of vote bank politics.