Guwahati, Feb 21 : Asserting that if India can be free of Naxals, it can also be free of infiltrators, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday said that the illegal immigrants would be removed not only from the electoral rolls but also from the country in the next five years.
Shah was addressing a gathering after laying the foundation stone for a new campus of the Assam Police 10th Battalion, which he said would be constructed on land freed from encroachments by infiltrators.
Attacking Leader of the Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, Shah said that the Congress leader had once said that infiltrators would be removed, but the “Congress can’t do so as illegal immigrants are its votebank”.
“It is not enough to just evict infiltrators from encroached lands, they must also be sent out of India,” he said.
The Election Commission is conducting a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls and it is obvious that the infiltrators will be identified, but “Rahul Gandhi is protesting against the exercise, and hurling bomb after bomb but these do not make sounds of even firecrackers”.
While SIR is underway in several other states, Special Revision (SR) is being conducted in Assam.
Shah said the new campus of the battalion will be developed on land freed from encroachments by infiltrators.
“It is, however, not enough to evict the infiltrators from encroached land as they will go and settle somewhere else… They must be removed from the country,” he said.
“Rahul Gandhi had once said infiltrators would be removed but Congress can’t do so as illegal immigrants are its votebank,” he alleged.
The home minister also alleged that the Congress’ policy of protecting infiltrators has threatened Assam’s ‘jati’ (people), ‘mati’ (land) and ‘bheti’ (foundation).
“If the Congress is committed to getting rid of infiltrators, I challenge Rahul Gandhi to mention it in its manifesto,” he said.
He accused the Congress of encouraging infiltration, bringing the “state’s demography to a crisis point”.
“I want to ask: Who is responsible for Dhubri, Barpeta, Darrang, Morigaon, Bongaigaon, Nagaon and Goalpara becoming Muslim-dominated districts? It is the Congress,” he said.
“The BJP will make Assam free from the sin committed by the Congress of encouraging infiltration,” he said.
The Assam government led by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has freed over 1 lakh bighas of land from encroachments by infiltrators, Shah said, adding that the CM has said that another 5 lakh bighas will be cleared over the next five years, if the BJP is voted to power.
“I know him (Sarma) well… He keeps his promises but will this solve Assam’s problems? No, it will not as the infiltrators will go to some other place in the country,” Shah said.
He said if voted to power again, the BJP will “find each and every infiltrator and send them out of the country”.
“This is possible… When a major part of the country can be free of Naxals, the nation can also be free of infiltrators. To make this happen, one would need willpower, courage and determination. Our PM has all these,” he added.
“The Congress, which had brought in the infiltrators, will never allow them to leave if they come to power,” Shah said, adding, “if we want to send the illegal immigrants out of the country, the BJP must retain power in the state”.
“The infiltrators had not spared even the birthplace of Vaishnav saint Srimanta Sankardeva but the state government cleared the land of encroachments and I recently inaugurated a renovated complex there,” he said.
Shah said Assam will become the industrial hub of eastern and northeastern India in the next five years.
Assam Police 10th Battalion Rs 270-crore new campus will be constructed on 347 acres of tribal belt and block land cleared of encroachments.
The eviction drive was carried out in two phases in September 2024 and April 2025, with the first phase turning violent and resulting in the death of two persons and injuries to 40 others.
Noting that infiltrators pose a threat to the national security, Shah said, “I am happy that the threat has been neutralised and a campus for those who will protect the country will come up in an area where the Congress had encouraged illegal immigrants to settle.”
Shah said that in the last 10 years of BJP rule in the state, both Sarbananda Sonowal and Himanta Biswa Sarma governments have done immense work to improve the law and order in the state.
Alleging that the Congress had always left Assam to its fate, Shah said former prime minister Manmohan Singh, despite being elected to the Rajya Sabha from the state, did not visit it even 10 times in two tenures, while Prime Minister Narendra Modi has visited Northeast 80 times, including 35 times to Assam, in the last 11 years.
“This explains that the priority of the PM and the BJP is the Northeast… Several steps have been taken for Assam’s development, including the grant of land rights to indigenous people, launch of special schemes for tea garden workers, connecting 40 lakh women to SHGs and operationalising the region’s first emergency landing facility at Moran,” he said.
Shah said the BJP will make the state free from insurgency, poverty, unemployment and floods.
Elections to the 126-member Assam Assembly are expected to be held in March-April. (PTI)
