Our detention centres different from NDA’s: Chidambaram

UPA govt had asked states to set up holding facilities only to detain foreign tourists who stay here without valid documents, says former Union minister
Former Union minister P Chidambaram at the Raj Bhavan march in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday | Vincent Pulickal
Former Union minister P Chidambaram at the Raj Bhavan march in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday | Vincent Pulickal

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The UPA government had asked states to set up detention centres across the country in 2012 as per the Foreigners Act for detaining foreign tourists who stay here without valid documents or passport. But what the NDA government at the centre has asked the states is to set up detention centres across the country as part of making National Registry of Citizens (NRC) which is a move aimed at detaining lakhs of people in various parts of the country, said former union finance minister P Chidambaram. 

Addressing a press meet in Thiruvananthapuram, he said that the two directives cannot be compared as there is big difference between the two. If the detention centre planned by the UPA can accommodate only a few hundred people, the centres being constructed in Assam by the centre spending around Rs 46 crore each can accommodate 3,000 people at a given point of time which is part of dividing the people on the lines of religion and making the state a Hindu Rashtra as propagated by the RSS. This cannot be agreed upon, he said. 

The centre is moving ahead with focus on Assam and West Bengal elections in 2021 for which they have to divide the country on the lines of religion. The NRC, National Population Register (NPR) and Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) are tools aimed at winning the elections and not meant for protecting the interests of the country, he said.  

The NDA government is playing with the future of the country and the Congress will not allow this to happen and it will fight in the streets till the Centre repeals the controversial sinister provisions in the new rules, he said. Addressing Congress workers during the Raj Bhavan march in Thiruvananthapuram on Saturday morning, Chidambaram said that while the centre is concerned about Hindus fleeing from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, it is not bothered about the Hindus who fled from the war-torn Tamil Hindu areas of Sri Lanka, he said. 

He also said that the army chief should not step into the role of politicians for which the people of the country have elected their representatives. He can fight the war, but should not step into politics. He should also stick to the dharma and dignity of his uniform, Chidambaram added.

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