BJP's Vision document and the ‘immigrants’ remark

The controversial sentence “North Eastern Immigrants to be protected,” incorporated in the Vision Document- 2015 released for Delhi Assembly polls, has created strong resentment amongst the people of the State. Meanwhile some political parties and organizations of the State have already started various agitation programmes and criticizing the government in the centre for such a controversial term used in the vision document and sought unconditiol apology from the Prime Minister rendra Modi and the tiol President of the BJP to the people of the northeast for the same. However, observing the resentment of the people of northeast particularly Assam, the spokesperson of BJP clarified immediately that the controversial word ‘immigrants’ has been withdrawn from the vision document and also stated that it was a mere printing/typing mistake. Since the manifesto/vision document of any political party is prepared by high level functiories of the respective party and before releasing the same all precautions are taken to make the manifesto/vision documents flawless. The explation given by the BJP regarding typing, printing and clerical mistake, is not acceptable at all and in our view it is a ridiculous one. Why was the mistake not noticed by the leaders of BJP before releasing the vision document? Will the tiol President of the BJP and the Prime Minister clarify? Considering the seriousness of the situation, we request the tiol President of BJP to institute an enquiry immediately to find out the persons responsible for such a great mistake to get back confidence of the people of Northeast on the BJP.

Pradip Kakati,

1, bagraha Path,

Guwahati-3.

PM, please take action!

The use of the word ‘immigrant’ for the people of North East India, in the BJP’s Delhi vision document 2015 has sparked off a series protests in Assam and many parts of India. In the Hindi version the document the word “Prabashi” is used to mean “immigrant”. The BJP leaders say it was a printing mistake. But how could the same mistake could occur in the both versions of the document? The person or persons who drafted the documents have little or no knowledge about the states located in the north eastern part of India. If it was a simple printing mistake it should have come to the notice of the senior leaders of the party who filly approved the draft document. The people living in the north eastern states often feel alieted due to such irresponsible acts of a section of people living in some metropolis. This has indirectly encouraged a separatist movement to grow in this region. A few weeks back an excursion party of students of a local girl’s college got humiliated by the staff posted at the gates of the Taj Mahal branding the students as foreigners as the staff had no knowledge that a few Indian states exist beyond West Bengal. But no action was taken against the erring staff even after lodging protests. The constitution has granted an Indian citizen to live anywhere in India. So even the word ‘migrant’ should not be used for people who go to other states for their livelihood. The honorable PM will do well to diffuse the anger of the people living in this part of the country by giving exemplary punishment to those who try to hurt the sentiments of the people of the NE.

Dipak Kumar Sharma,

Samany path, Survey, Beltola,

Guwahati 781028.