Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley in his latest blog post defended Assam NRC exercise and attacked opposition parties who are playing politics around it just for the sake of their vote bank at the cost of the sovereignty of India. Arun Jaitley exposed the hypocrisy of opposition and the hollowness of their immature stand.
He started off by saying, “Territory and citizens are the two most important aspects of a sovereign State. The principal duty of any Government is to defend the borders of the country, prevent any trespass and make the life of its citizens safe and secure,” and then launched a blistering attack on the Congress President Rahul Gandhi and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for their puerile stand on the whole NRC issue.
He called both Mamata Banerjee and Rahul Gandhi ‘fickle minded’, stating that Mamata Banerjee in 2005 when she was a BJP ally, raised concern about the infiltration of Bangladeshis into West Bengal. She had said, “The infiltration in Bengal has become a disaster now. You can see the Bangladeshi as well as the Indian names in the list. I have both the Bangladeshi and the Indian voters list. This is a very serious matter. I would like to know when would it be discussed in the House?”
Arun Jaitley also mentioned about the stand of the Congress party under Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, both the former Prime Minister’s championed the cause of kicking out Bangladeshi intruders. Arun Jaitley writes, “Subsequent to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971, the Indian and the Bangladeshi Prime Ministers entered into an arrangement in February, 1972. The Government of India, on 30th September, 1972, set out a circular that those Bangladeshi nationals who had come to India before 25th March, 1971 were to be detected but those who entered India in or after the said date were to be repatriated. This is what Mrs. Indira Gandhi’s commitment to India and the people of this nation was.” Under the Rajiv Gandhi Government, Assam Accord was signed on 15th August, 1984. Arun Jaitley further writes, “Those who came on or after 25.3.1971 were to be detected, deleted and expelled in accordance with law. Immediate and practical steps should be taken to expel such foreigners”. However present Congress party under the leadership of Rahul Gandhi takes a contrarian position just like Mamata Banerjee. That’s when Arun Jaitley asks, “Can India’s sovereignty be decided by such fickle minds and fragile hands?” This is a very pertinent question because both the Congress party and Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress have thrown the issue of national security out of the window and treats Bangladeshi intruders as their vote bank.
Arun Jaitley ended his write up by saying, “The Congress was the mainstream party on Indian politics. It has increasingly started taking fringe position. Siding with the ‘Tukde Tukde’ gang was one such illustration. It is now compromising the sovereignty of India. Leaders like Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee must realise that India’s sovereignty is not a play thing. Sovereignty and citizenship are the soul of India. Imported vote banks are not.”
Arun Jaitley, who is on medical leave from his role as finance minister, wrote all this in a Facebook post titled ‘National Register of Citizens – Sovereignty vs Vote Bank’.
Through his post, Arun Jaitley completely exposed Rahul Gandhi and Mamata Banerjee. These two leaders should understand that their appeasement politics would harm the security and sovereignty of India and politically too, this will cost them big-time. Nothing will save these 40 lakh people from being deregistered as voters, so at the end of the day both Mamata and Rahul would end up losing both votes and goodwill among Indian voters.