BJP says its stand on Hindu Bangladeshis as clear as daylight

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Oct 17: The Minority Morcha of the BJP Assam Pradesh has said that the BJP’s stand on the Hindu Bangladeshi issue has always been as clear as daylight. The BJP has never hidden anything on this issue.

Talking to The Sentinel today, State BJP Minority Morcha president Mominul Aowal said: “In its 2011 Assam Assembly election manifesto the BJP did clearly mention that it, if voted to power, would accord Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis. Not only Hindus, If any other religious minorities in Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh like Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains and others have to leave those countries under religious persecution and enter India, India will provide them shelter. And as such, there’s no deviation on the issue of Hindu Bangladeshis by the BJP after the election.”

On the AGP, an alliance partner of the BJP in Assam, raising its protest against the move to accord Indian citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis, Aowal said: “The regiol party forged its alliance with the BJP knowing well the stand of the Saffron party on the issue of Hindu Bangladeshis. We also want the implementation of the Assam Accord that nowhere says that refugees won’t be accorded citizenship. The BJP-led government at Dispur has started to work in accordance with the promises made in the run-up to the last Assembly election in the State. The BJP did promise to make Kaziranga tiol Park (KNP) free from encroachment. Dispur has started an eviction drive in the KNP. The government is also going to fulfill its assurance given on Bangladeshi Hindus as well.”