Modi to \\\'go slow\\\' on illegal immigrants

Narendra Modi’s government will ‘go slow’ on its poll-time promise to identify and pushback illegal migrants from Bangladesh. Senior officials at Indian Home Ministry say the process will be first started in Assam, where there is a strong public opinion against illegal migration from Bangladesh, which the BJP used to win 7 of the state’s 14 seats. Assam’s ruling Congress, accused by the BJP of encouraging illegal migration from Bangladesh to build ‘vote banks’, managed only three seats and the minority party, AUDF, led by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, won in three seats. ‘In Assam, we are asking for updating the National Register for Citizens (NRC) based on the 1971 Electoral Rolls. That was the year Bangladesh was born and under the Indira-Mujib Agreement, anyone coming to India after March 25, 1971, is legally considered an illegal migrant. So we will go by existing laws to identify illegal migrants,’ said a top Home Ministry official, but he was unwilling to be named. The Home Ministry official said that once the National Register for Citizens is updated on the basis of the 1971 Electoral rolls, those residents not finding a place in the NRC will be taken off the electoral rolls and then moved to designated camps for illegal migrants. ‘Then comes the question of deportation. It will take at least two years to get to the stage when illegal migrants have been identified,’ the Home Ministry official said. Assam goes to state assembly elections in two years in 2016 along with West Bengal. ‘So that perfectly fits the BJP plan of keeping the pot boiling on this sensitive issue to reap maximum dividend in Assam where the BJP aspires to replace the Congress as the ruling party,’ says a top BJP leader close to PM Modi. ‘We plan to go about this in a way no bonafide Indian national is affected or victimised and our relations with Bangladesh are not affected,’ the leader said, though he was not willing to be quoted, according to bdnews24.com.