Congress’ Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha has stirred a new debate in a media statement centred around NRC. Speaking to ANI, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury commented on the citizenship status of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah.
After a long rant against the envisioned implementation of a pan-India NRC, Chowdhury said: “Hindustan sab ke liye hai, ye Hindustan kisi ki jageer hai kya? Sabka samaan adhikaar hai. Amit Shah ji, Narendra Modi ji, aap khud ‘ghuspetiye’ hain. Ghar aapka Gujarat, agaye Dilli, aap khud migrant hain.” Here, the man conceives and shares a brilliant theory— that PM Modi and Amit Shah are ‘infiltrators’ in their own country. Clearly, Chowdhury has no legal, constitutional and dictionary knowledge. What else explains this stupid comment by a leader who is considered a veteran in the Congress, while being a non-Gandhi.
#WATCH Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury:.. Hindustan sab ke liye hai, ye Hindustan kisi ki jageer hai kya? Sabka samaan adhikaar hai. Amit Shah ji, Narendra Modi ji aap khud ghuspetiye hain. Ghar aapka Gujarat agaye Dilli, aap khud migrant hain. pic.twitter.com/zrCaSfPF7v
— ANI (@ANI) December 1, 2019
Nevertheless, Adhir Ji has started an interesting conversation. We have our own doubts, which we hope, he will care to address. The nation is keenly waiting to understand the mind that he put to use before making this comment, because last we heard, Indians were free to move around in any part of the country and have a job/business anywhere within India’s borders. Narendra Modi came to Delhi from Gujarat, yes. He and Amit Shah are both Gujaratis, yes. But so are numerous MPs from the Congress. So was former PM Manmohan Singh, whose roots are traced back to what is now called Pakistan. According to Chowdhury, Indians of one state, migrating to another state, are deemed to be considered ‘illegal infiltrators’! We’d like to know when the man had this ‘Eureka!’ moment.
Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury seems to be of the opinion that a pan-India NRC will be directed against migrants of various states, settled in other states for jobs or other purposes. However, NRC as an exercise is aimed at weeding out ‘illegal immigrants’ specifically. By no means can the terms ‘migrants’ and ‘illegal immigrants’ be interchanged and used as parallels.
But again, what do we lesser mortals know in comparison to the veteran leaders of the Congress party? Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury is perhaps an artist at heart, who admires subjectivity to the core. He observes all happenings differently, and his perception is not ‘homogeneous’. Had this not been the case, the man would have called Congress President Sonia Gandhi an ‘Italian Ghuspet’, but that hasn’t happened so far. He would further classify himself as a ‘Bengali Ghuspet’, as he comes from West Bengal. But as I said, subjectivity seems to be Chowdhury’s forte. This phenomenon is exclusive to the Congress party, as it continues to consider Lutyens a sovereign entity, casting a hateful eye to anyone who disturbs the status quo.
We can also call it idiocy, though.