New Delhi: Amid the countrywide protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), Prime Minister Narendra Modi Sunday addressed a huge gathering at the Ramlila Maidan here, flaying the opposition parties for their alleged hypocrisy in opposing the new citizenship law.
However, a number of statements made by Modi were in stark contrast to what Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, like Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, have said in the past.
Here are a few instances from Modi’s Ramlila Ground speech where the PM, to put in cruder terms, ‘distorted facts’.
No nationwide implementation of NRC
“I want to tell the 130 crore people of India that ever since my government came to power in 2014… from then until now… there has been no discussion on NRC anywhere… we only had to implement it in Assam to follow Supreme Court directives,” PM Modi said in a 90-minute speech at Ramlila.
Rajnath Singh would beg to differ. The senior BJP leader and Defence Minister had said last week that nationwide implementation of the NRC was ‘inevitable’ and that nothing can stop the government from doing so.
“Subsequent to NRC exercise, we shall sit together and take a call about the fate of illegal migrants, who have settled here with a humane approach unlike the way they are being treated in several other countries,” said Singh according to TOI.
Amit Shah himself tweeted the following earlier this year: “First, we will bring Citizenship Amendment Bill and will give citizenship to the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Christian refugees, the religious minorities from the neighbouring nations. Then, we will implement NRC to flush out the infiltrators from our country.”
First, we will bring Citizenship Amendment Bill and will give citizenship to the Hindu, Buddhist, Sikh, Jain and Christian refugees, the religious minorities from the neighbouring nations.
Then, we will implement NRC to flush out the infiltrators from our country. pic.twitter.com/w7yeDf5qcn
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) April 22, 2019
No detention centres in India
“The Congress and its allies – some urban Naxals — are spreading rumors that all Muslims will be sent to detention centers… Neither is anybody sending the country’s Muslims to detention centres nor are there any detention centres in India… The Muslims of India don’t need to worry at all. The CAB and the NRC will not apply to the Muslims of the country,” said Modi with a remarkably straight face.
Contrary to what the PM said, Assam hosts a gigantic detention center for ‘illegal immigrants’. Lying 150 kms west of Guwahati, the camp is the size of seven football fields.
Furthermore, according to Economic Times, “the Centre has asked all states and union territories to set up at least one detention centre each with modern amenities for illegal migrants/ foreigners, so that they can be housed for longer periods and traced easily when deportation is legally ordered.”
PNN