New Delhi: Leader of Congress party in the Lok Sabha Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury on Sunday said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were themselves ‘migrants’.
“I can say that Narendra Modi and Amit Shah Ji are themselves the migrants. Their homes are in Gujarat but they have come to Delhi,” Chowdhury told ANI here. “India is for everyone — for Hindus, for Muslims and for everyone else. They are creating the fear that they will throw out Muslims. They do not have the capability to do that. But what they want to show is Hindus will be allowed to stay, while Muslims will be sent away,” added Chowdhury, while opposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.
Chowdhury’s comment comes at a time when Union Minister Shah is discussing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill with the members of political parties and the civil society organisations from the northeastern states.
The Union Home Minister met them on Friday and Saturday while the third meeting is scheduled for December 3.
Earlier, Shah had said in the Rajya Sabha that the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is needed so that Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain, Christian and Parsi refugees, who are being discriminated on the basis of their religion in Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, obtain Indian citizenship.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, which was passed in the Lok Sabha on January 8 this year, aims at granting citizenship to non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, who came to India before December 31, 2014.
Further attacking the Bill, Chowdhury said that Home Minister Shah should learn about the number of migrants from India, who were working and living in the rest of the world and their contribution to the Indian economy.
“In the entire world, the maximum number of migrants are from India. All the Indians living and working abroad send crores of rupees back to India. But no other country thinks about the issue other than Modiji and Amit Shah,” Chowdhury said.
He also warned Shah of the consequences of passing the Bill.
“Amit Shah has the numbers needed to pass the (Citizenship) Bill — it is one thing but what will happen after the Bill is passed is another matter altogether. If the BJP thinks it can improve India by clearing the Citizenship Bill, then it is nothing more than their wishful thinking.”
“It is because of the issue of Citizenship Bill that they have been swept away in West Bengal (assembly by-elections). If they continue with it, they will be swept away from the rest of India too,” added Chowdhury.
Also read: Rajnath Singh bats for NRC, says Indians have the right to know who is an illegal immigrant
Talk about unite India an India just like before 1947 unifying India, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
Isn’t it a good idea. Then the Sankees will be like flat balloon.
The biggest beneficiary of dividing India is RSS and the Sankh parivar becz muslims in India shrank into a minority benefitting Hindu Sankees. But they always blame and harass Muslims in the name of dividing India. Come on, let’s join and and stand for the unification of India. So no qstn of illegal migrants. No Kasmir issue, no cross fire in the border.
Congress leaders like Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury , Mani Shankar Aiyer, are the best political assets the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has. They help BJP win the elections. Is it the official position of The Congress Party that a person born and brought-up in Gujarat moving to Delhi is similar to an illegal immigrant from Bangladesh to West Bengal? Mrs. Sonia Gandhi as a moral obligation to clarify her stand.
go read Assam agrement on the basis of which the NRC was carried out – they did not want people from rest of India in Assam.
India is clearly not for everyone. States have domicile + inheritance issues, some linked to gender and others have sought to limit migration by either hiding behind article 371 or creating public and private sector reservations based on domicile etc..
Comparing inter-state migrants to illegal immigrants is a red herring argument, and frankly dumb. It’s designed to generate click bait style headlines. All of us are intellectually poorer for it.
India has a repatriation agreement with Bangladesh and I’m sure one with Afghanistan can easily be created if it already doesn’t exist. I don’t expect anything from the Pakistani State.
The politically smart thing for the BJP to do would be to offer amnesty to all illegal immigrants by offering them a choice. Stay in India or get resettled to their country of origin. If they stay here they become naturalized and check in with the FRRO once in a while during the naturalization time period.
End of story and move on. There are more important things to think about. But it’s not that simple, is it?
The real issue is that no one wants immigrants, illegal or otherwise, in their back yard. So where should they go? Talk of resettling people domestically and hear political braying that Indian citizens don’t have roofs over their head.
Don’t resettle (choose your minority of choice) and they continue being targets of discrimination and violence.
The issue isn’t with the government. The issue is with us and our inability to solve hard problems because we don’t have any consensus building mechanisms.
I do think there’s an opportunity for communities to ‘adopt’ a family. If Indians are so worried about refugees then let their communities be inclusive and volunteer to adopt them. Link this to an NRC type excercise.
But please don’t create a separate ID for it. PAN / Aadhar, Ration Card / DLs – where does it stop?
Implement NRC and uniform civil code at the earliest…
uniform civil code… imagine that the uniform civil code be based on muslim personal law rather than the hindu one? not all provisions of the mulism law are retrograde or anti-women either – take the practice of making pre-nuptial agreements for example… or the christian law where an explicit consent of the bride at the point of marriage is required. will you accept that?
Hai Mr. Vinu, can you define uniform civil code?
Shah is an Islamic Iranian surname.
His surname, shah comes from hindi word “sah” or “sahukar” i. e merchant. It is nothing to do with with iranian word shah which means king. Similar word but different meaning.
and how do we know that? may be “Ali” is infact short form of “Diwali”! May be A. Shah’s forefathers did migrate to India from Iran – so what? the point is that a name means nothing – we are all indians and have the right to this land.
” Indians have the right to know who is an illegal migrant.” – Honourable Defence minister Rajnath Singh.
He is very right. It is our right to know who is an illegal migrant.
But for doing that, the government has to define who are the legitimate and rightful citizens.
As per the proposed Bill, anybody from any country be it a hindu, a sikh, a jain, a buddhist automatically become a citizen of this country. What is the logic behind such a Bill ?
A hindu , a sikh, a jain, a buddhist from any other country can not have anti Indian sentiments ?
It is only the muslims ? What is the base for such a thinking ?
The basic logic of the Bill is malafide.
An illegal migrant is he who has entered the country illegally without any reference to his religion, his faith, his caste or creed.
The Bill, if passed in the present form, is going to impact the national security.
Simple thing- Hindu, Sikh, buddhist and Jain and their religion started in this part of the world- India. Why you use Arabic name if you are Indian? Your religion is Arabic religion which has nothing to do with India and you will loyalty will always be in question mark?
What is in a name? The ancestors ofMuslims in India are Hindus. Why Hindus go to Arab countries seeking job? If They are so hating Muslims don’t go to Muslim countries. Modi is always visiting Gulf countries seeking financial aid and signs agreements with them.
Muslims are the largest community who fought for freedom of India. Check the names of martyres carved on India gate. Out of 10000
6500 are of Muslims bearing Arabic names.
The stand of BJP govt so far as Migrants from other countries according to religion, is helpful for Indians. Because Pak & Ban are not the real nations. They are by birth Muslim countries. So Muslim migration should not be given permission to be civilians of India.
Exactly, I would say even xians should not be allowed.