Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday launched a sharp attack on the Congress at the BJP's Youth Sankalp Samaroh at Khanapara in Guwahati, accusing the party of having legalised, formalised, and normalised the presence of infiltrators in Assam over decades, while pledging that the BJP would expel them from the country one by one.
"Infiltrators flocked to Assam during the Congress regimes. They occupied lands of the Borduwa Than and the Kaziranga National Park. They were able to do all this because the Congress governments legalised, formalised, and normalised the presence of infiltrators in Assam," Shah said.
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Shah drew a sharp contrast between the Congress and BJP's approach to illegal immigration, questioning whether Congress — if returned to power — would have either the will or the ability to deport infiltrators.
"The BJP can. We've already made 1.50 lakh bighas of land free from their encroachment. We won't stop by deleting their names from voter lists. We'll pick them up one by one from their homes and hearths and expel them from the country," he said, urging voters to elect the BJP for a third consecutive term to make Assam free from infiltrators.
Shah also accused the Congress of neglecting Assam's cultural heritage, contrasting it with the BJP government's record over the past five years. He said the government had taken Bihu Dance, Jhumur Dance, and Bagrumba to global audiences, erected the Smarak Kshetra in memory of the martyrs of the Assam Agitation, and given a new look to the Borduwa Than.
On development, Shah cited the Rs 28,000 crore semiconductor plant currently nearing completion — describing it as something the Congress could never have imagined for Assam. He also highlighted that the BJP had provided land pattas to Tea Tribes and Adivasis, in contrast to what he described as the Congress's decades of exploitation of these communities.