All illegal migrants to be evicted by 2024, says Amit Shah in poll-bound Haryana, attacks Congress for criticising Rafale shastra pooja

Kaithal: Union Home Minister Amit Shah Wednesday said every illegal migrant in the country will be sent home before the next parliamentary elections, as he invoked the NRC, Article 370 and the Rafale purchase during an Assembly poll rally in Kaithal. [caption id=“attachment_7474131” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  Union Home Minister Amit Shah addresses a public meeting ahead of Haryana Assembly elections in Bhiwani. PTI[/caption] “When we come again to seek your votes in 2024, I want to say before then we would have evicted every single intruder from this country,” the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president said. He was addressing the first of his three public meetings of the day in Haryana, where elections to the state assembly will be held on 21 October. He attacked the Congress over criticism by its leaders of the “shastra pooja” performed by Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on the Rafale fighter handed over to India in France on Tuesday. “Should the shastra pujan tradition be observed or not? Should we keep this tradition alive or not?” he asked the gathering. Referring to the row in Assam over the National Register of Citizens (NRC), he said, “For 70 years, these intruders have put a question mark on our security.” “The BJP government is committed to evicting all of them from country through the NRC,” he added. “Should these intruders be evicted or not?” Shah asked the gathering, accusing the Congress and its local candidate and senior leader Randeep Singh Surjewala of opposing the NRC implementation. “Ask the Congress people why they opposed the triple talaq (bill) scrapping of Articles 370 and 35A. Why are they opposing the NRC?” he said. In an apparent reference to remarks by the some Congress leader, Shah said their party is upset over the weapon worship ceremony performed by Rajnath Singh when he was handed over the first Rafale fighter in France on Tuesday. “Rajnath Singh ji performed shastra pooja in France but the Congress people felt very bad about this too,” he said. “Should the shastra pujan tradition be observed or not? Should we keep this tradition alive or not?” he said. “But the Congress is opposing this too.” Shah wanted Congress leader Rahul Gandhi to make clear whether he is for or against Article 370, recently nullified by the BJP government at the Centre. “The Congress has to oppose whatever the BJP does,” he said. Shah said no previous government had dared to scrap Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, but the Narendra Modi government acted in the first session of Parliament after coming back to power. “We expected to get the support of all parties in this because it was not the BJP’s job, but related to the country’s security,” he said while singling out the Congress He said there was a feeling among people in the country that Jammu and Kashmir was not fully integrated into the Indian Union, with Articles 370 and 35A acting as stumbling blocks. He said several soldiers from Haryana had sacrificed their lives over Jammu and Kashmir. Click here for detailed coverage of Assembly Elections 2019 Contrasting the BJP’s stand with that of the Congress, Shah said Atal Bihari Vajpayee had praised Indira Gandhi over the war against Pakistan that brought Bangladesh into being. He said this was because it was a matter of national interest and not a Congress victory. Shah mentioned the Balakot air strike and the surgical strike earlier against terror camps across the LoC, saying the government has sent a strong message to Pakistan. The BJP leader said Modi has undertaken fewer foreign visits than former prime minister Manmohan Singh but the perception is just the opposite. This is because Singh’s visits failed to make an impact, he claimed. He targeted the sitting Kaithal MLA Randeep Singh Surjewala, saying “Whatever Modi ji does, Surjewala gets a stomach ache.” Shah attacked the previous state governments led by Congress leader Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Indian National Lok Dal’s OP Chautala, accusing them of playing caste politics. He alleged that ‘goondaism’ and ‘corruption’ increased during their terms. He praised the current ML Khattar government, saying it is corruption-free.