Guwahati: BJP will soon approach the National Human Rights Commission seeking constitutional protection for Hindu refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan and Bangladesh, party President Nitin Gadkari said on Sunday.
“Denial of citizenship to Hindu refugees is a violation of human rights. We’ll file a petition with the National Human Rights Commission so that such victims of persecution who have fled to India can secure their rights as per rules of the Constitution”, Gadkari told reporters here.
“As per the Constitution, any Hindu who is forced to flee any part of the world and comes to India on account of persecution has a right to Indian citizenship. That is a constitutional duty for us”, he said.
Accusing successive Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Assam of committing injustice to Hindu refugees by denying them citizenship, he said, BJP Human Rights Cell head Avinash Rai Khanna would soon visit Assam for doing ground work for the petition which was expected to be filed next month.
“The state BJP leadership has been directed to start a mass movement in Assam against the step-motherly treatment to Hindu refugees by the government”, Gadkari said.
BJP has also appointed a legal committee to study the feasibility of approaching courts on violation of constitutional rights of Hindu refugees.
“BJP General Secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad will head the three-member committee. They will visit the North East besides Assam to prepare a legal case”, he said.
“I’ll also ask Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley to raise the matter in Parliament”, Gadkari said.
The BJP chief, however, denied allegations that his party adopts different standards for Hindu and Muslim immigrants.
“We are not against any religious group but believe in justice and equality of all. We are not against indigenous Muslims. But government should deal with illegal immigrants as per the Constitution”, Gadkari said.
He charged “all Congress leaders from Pandit Nehru to Manmohan Singh and Tarun Gogoi have betrayed Hindu refugees who fled erstwhile East Pakistan. They are being humiliated by having their names in the D (Doubtful)-Voter list”.
Gadkari said BJP MP from Silchar Kabindra Purkayastha had submitted a private members Bill in the Lok Sabha seeking constitutional protection for refugees.
The BJP chief also accused the central government of failing to take proper account of the plight of Hindu minorities in Pakistan.
“Our party is worried over the injustice and atrocities being perpetrated on the minority Hindus in Pakistan. Their protection is our moral responsibility. The Hindu women of Pakistan have faced serious injustice and atrocities”, he said.
He was referring to recent instances of forced conversion of Hindu women in Pakistan. Meanwhile, Nitin Gadkari on Sunday blamed Congress for the lack of development in the north east and lambasted it for failing to live up to the expectations of the people in Assam despite being in power for 11 years.
Assam in the first state in the country where power generation has fallen over the years, he said. Gadkari, who chaired the BJP state executive on Saturday, said its leaders have been directed to work for strengthening the party so that it can emerge as an alternative to Congress in the state, where it will go it alone in the next Lok Sabha polls.
BJP has prepared ‘vision documents’ for development of Assam and the other north eastern states.
“Our document is based on analysis of the problems and once we form the government at the Centre we will change the scenario.” Gadkari, who is on a two-day visit to Assam, claimed that certain senior leaders of several regional parties in the NE have expressed their willingness to join the BJP.
“Former union minister Chouba Singh and former Manipur minister Rajan Singh want to join us. I will visit Imphal soon where they will formally join the party,” he said adding some prominent figures from Assam politics are also likely to join BJP. Referring to alliances in the north east in the next general elections, the BJP president said the party had not received any feelers from any party and the state executive committee meeting on Saturday discussed ways to strengthen the party’s organisation to prepare for a strong fight in all the Lok Sabha seats. (PTI)