NEW DELHI: In the government's first reaction to the controversy surrounding the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in poll-bound Bihar, Union Home Minister Amit Shah said that the ECI is duty-bound to conduct such an exercise as the ‘purity of voters’ list’ is the foundation of the democracy of India.
Addressing an event organised here by a media house, the Home Minister said, the inclusion of infiltrators in the voters’ list pollutes the spirit of the Constitution and asserted that voting rights should only be available to the citizens of the country, as per the Constitutional scheme.
Shah asserted that the government at the Centre led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi always followed the 3-D policy while dealing with infiltrators: “detect, delete and deport”. He also asked that all well-meaning citizens of the country should not look at infiltration and the SIR from the political prism, while asserting that these are issues directly connected with national security.
Remarking that the Congress has gone into a “denial mode” on the issue of the SIR, Shah said that the exercise took place even during the period in which it was in power. “The opposition is blocking the exercise because their vote banks are getting affected … It is the EC's constitutional responsibility to clean the voters’ list. You can go to court if you have any issues,” he said.
Free and fair elections cannot take place unless the voter list contains only true voters--one who is an Indian citizen and above the age of 18 years--he said, adding that non-citizens cannot be allowed to choose the country’s leadership.
Underlining the difference between an infiltrator and a refugee, Shah said the latter comes to India to save his/her religion, while an infiltrator crosses over the border illegally, not because of religious persecution but because of economic and other reasons.
“Who are infiltrators? Those who have not faced religious persecution and want to come to India illegally for economic or other reasons are infiltrators. If anyone in the world who wants to come here is allowed to do so, our country will become a dharamshala,” Shah said.
Criticising the events that led to the partition of the country in 1947, the Home Minister said, “Dividing the country on the basis of religion was a grave mistake, as this cut the arms of Bharat Mata and helped the British conspiracy succeed.”
Citing successive census data since Independence, Shah claimed that Muslim population growth in India is linked to illegal immigration in certain regions and reaffirmed his party’s commitment to “detect, delete and deport such infiltrators.”
