‘Will Expel Illegal Immigrants By 2024 Polls’: Shah’s NRC Promise

File image of Union Home Minister Amit Shah. 

(Photo: PTI)

Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday, 2 December, set a deadline for the implementation of NRC across India, saying that, “NRC will be implemented across the country and all infiltrators identified and expelled before 2024 polls.”

While addressing a rally in Jharkhand, Shah reiterated that the BJP-led central government would drive out illegal immigrants from the country before 2024.

“Rahul questions why NRC is being implemented. He asks why intruders are being expelled. Where will they go, what will they eat? Why, are they your kin? Before 2024, the BJP government will identify each and every infiltrator and expel them from the country,” Shah said, according to ANI.

Political Rhetoric of BJP, Can Never Be a Reality : Mamata

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday hit out out at BJP over its NRC rhetoric and said a pan-India citizens' register can never be a reality as all living in the country are its legal citizens, according to PTI.

"NRC is a political rhetoric of BJP. It can never be a reality. They (BJP) are busy using political rhetoric but we should not fall into their trap. All people living in this country are its legal citizens and no one can take away their citizenship," Banerjee told reporters.

She said her opposition to NRC is not driven only by politics but also on humanitarian grounds.

"A person who is living in the country for last so many decades, how can you just announce him as a foreigner all of a sudden. This is completely unacceptable. Pan India NRC will never be a reality," Banerjee, also the TMC supremo, said, according to PTI.

People of State Want Terrorism, Naxalism to Be Rooted Out: Shah

Addressing a poll meeting in Chakradharpur, Shah urged the people of Jharkhand to vote in favour of his party, contending that their votes would determine if the state walked on the path of development or Naxalism.

Shah said national and local issues were equally important for Jharkhand as people in the state wanted terrorism to be rooted out just as Naxalism, PTI reported.

"A majority of the jawans who are guarding the borders are from Jharkhand. People of this state want terrorism and Naxalism to be rooted out. Modi ji (Prime Minister Narendra Modi) had given a befitting reply to the terrorists through air and surgical strikes,” he claimed.

He challenged Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, who is also in Jharkhand, to give an account of his party's development programmes in the region over the past 55 years.

“Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is in Jharkhand today. I would like to ask him to give an account of his party’s development programmes of 55 years... we are here with our account of five years,” he stated, according to PTI.

Listing the achievements of the Raghubar Das-led government in the state, the Union minister said it was the BJP that brought the Anti-conversion Act to penalise forcible religious conversions in the state.

Assembly elections are being held in Jharkhand in five phases.

(With inputs from ANI and PTI.)