India is Not 'Inn' for Illegal Infiltrators, Ruling BJP Reiterates

New Delhi (Sputnik): India's ruling right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has made it clear that all "illegal migrants" in the country will be identified.

BJP President and federal Home Minister Amit Shah had made it clear more than once that no infiltrators would be allowed in India.

"I promise not even one infiltrator will be allowed to remain in India", he said in the eastern city of Kolkata earlier this month.

Reiterating his party Chief's stand, Working President of the BJP Jagat Prakash Nadda said on Friday, 4 October, that the country is not a destination for illegal immigrants.

"In the time to come, we will make arrangements whereas no infiltrator will remain in our country. Infiltrators will go out, and India will give refuge to Hindus, Jains, Sikhs and Christians who were tortured outside. It is a country, not an inn", he said in the steel city of Bokaro, in eastern Jharkhand state.

JP Nadda, BJP national working president: In the time to come,we'll make arrangements where no infiltrator will remain in our country. Infiltrators will go out&Hindus,Jains, Sikhs,Christians who were tortured outside,will be given refuge by India. It's a country,not an inn.(4.10) pic.twitter.com/NwP18eyHMr

— ANI (@ANI) October 4, 2019

An exercise to identify "illegal migrants" in the northeastern state of Assam, ordered and monitored by the apex court of the country, found over 1.9 million residents without valid residential documents and hence absent on the National Register of Citizens or NRC.

They have been given 120 days to appeal before dozens of Foreigner Tribunals set up in the state. Assam faced large-scale public protests from 1979 to 1985 over illegal migrants, mostly from Bangladesh.

Members of the Indian coastguard rescue illegal Bangladeshi migrants in their trawler after they were sighted by the Coast Guard Aircraft off Chidiyatapu Island in the southern Andaman Islands on January 8, 2009

© AFP 2023 / STR

The process of weeding out "illegal migrants" has been on the BJP agenda. After the contentious exercise in Assam, several BJP-ruled states have carried out similar procedures, but haven't made any official announcements so far.

The federal government has not come out with any plan of action to deal with the identified illegal migrants in Assam. BJP's National General Secretary, in charge of the northeastern states, Ram Madhav, told Sputnik that those currently out of the NRC have judicial remedies if they are genuinely Indian citizens.

"In any situation, we will deal with this issue with an utmost humanitarian approach", Madhav assured.