Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday accused the Congress of opposing the nationwide Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise to protect Bangladeshi infiltrators. Speaking in Hyderabad, he said the Bharatiya Janata Party would ensure that every illegal infiltrator is removed from the voter list.
Addressing a gathering after the BJP’s ‘Loktantra Bachao’ padyatra, Shah said only Indian citizens would be permitted to vote in elections. He also criticised Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi over the INDIA bloc’s rally at Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan on Sunday, calling it a programme aimed at “saving infiltrators”.
Shah alleged that the Congress was attempting to influence elections through bogus voting and questioned whether one of two votes held by the same person should be cancelled. He claimed that three crore votes were linked to people who did not exist and identified them as Bangladeshi infiltrators.
The Home Minister said the Centre was prepared to call a special session of Parliament, but alleged that Gandhi would not take part because he did not want the House to function. He accused the Congress under Gandhi of trying to create anarchy in the country and said the Leader of Opposition would be defeated in a debate by Prime Minister Narendra Modi if Parliament functioned.
Describing the Congress as a party on a ventilator, Shah questioned whether it could “run a marathon alongside PM Modi”. He also said Gandhi would be defeated by the BJP’s Telangana Yuva Morcha president.
Shah, who is the Lok Sabha member from Gandhinagar, challenged Gandhi’s criticism of electronic voting machines. He asked how Revanth Reddy had become Telangana Chief Minister and how Congress governments had come to power in Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh if EVMs were faulty.
He further said that leaders should not take the oath of office if they believed EVMs were unreliable. According to Shah, the Congress credits voters when it wins but blames EVMs when it loses. He also alleged that the party’s 10 years in power were marked by scams, scandals and corruption amounting to Rs 12 lakh crore.
Shah also criticised Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy over his opposition to the SIR exercise, saying it would not succeed. He accused Reddy of turning Telangana into an ATM for the Congress and criticised All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen president Asaduddin Owaisi and the Bharat Rashtra Samithi for failing to prevent corruption in the state.
Responding to the Congress’s political record in Telangana, Shah said Rahul Gandhi had promised six guarantees but that none had been fulfilled. He contrasted this with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pledge to eliminate terrorism, referring to the surgical strikes, airstrikes and Operation Sindoor as actions taken against terror.
Shah also reiterated that the government would eliminate drugs from India and make the country drug-free before December 31, 2029.
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