Home Minister Amit Shah on Saturday declared that anybody who is not a citizen of the country should have their names removed from electoral rolls, as a clean voter list is essential for democracy.Addressing a gathering in Uttarakhand’s Haridwar to mark four years of the BJP-led state government (in its second stint), Shah while referring to the ongoing special intensive revision (SIR) of electoral rolls across several states across the country, said that Opposition leaders were opposing the exercise.
Referring to Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi, Shah said that he sees negativity in everything. Shah added that both the government and the BJP strongly supports the Election Commission’s SIR programme, because if the voter list — the fundamental unit that sustains democracy in a country — is not pure and accurate, the country’s democracy can never remain secure.
Referring to the problem of infiltration, the Home Minister said infiltrators across the country from Kedarnath to Kanyakumari would be identified and removed from India, adding that the Opposition leaders may oppose the exercise as much as they want.
He lauded the Uttarakhand Government for becoming the first state in the country to implement the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) law. This law will help prevent unnatural demographic changes in population, Shah noted.
“The UCC will help curb unnatural growth in demographics. Centre has decided to constitute a high-power committee to address demographic changes and it will begin its work in the coming days,” Shah said.
Attacking the Congress, the Home Minister further said if the Opposition party’s government had been in power in Uttarakhand, one would have needed both “parchi” (recommendation) and “kharchi” (money) to secure a job, but now, neither of these is required.
On the occasion, 162 people who had come from Pakistan and Afghanistan were granted Indian citizenship.
Shah said that when the government introduced the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), leaders of Opposition parties had created a lot of uproar in Parliament. “I would like to reiterate today that Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist and Jain refugees who came from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan have as much right over this country as the citizens of this country. Due to the politics of appeasement, these refugees were deprived of citizenship from the time of Independence until now,” he said.
The Home Minister asked whether India should not grant citizenship to those who have come here to protect their religion and the honour of the women in their families. He said the Opposition leaders may oppose it as much as they want, but the government would certainly grant citizenship to these refugees.