BJP calls for national consensus on illegal immigrants

Senior BJP leader L K Advani on Tuesday called for creation of a national consensus on the problem of illegal immigrants and conflict over land rights, which frequently led to problems in Assam.

“The government must try to create a national consensus on four issues. Political parties should also be part of the consensus. And, in the coming session of Parliament, it will be my party’s endeavour to bring around Parliament to these four points,” Advani told reporters here.

Elaborating on the four issues, he said “It should be viewed as an Indian versus foreigner issue.”

The current conflict in the state should not be viewed as one between people of different religious groups, he said.

He said that secondly, consensus should be built on preparing an updated National Register of Citizens in which names of non-citizens should be deleted from voter lists.

Thirdly, the government should uphold non-violability of tribal belts and blocks in Bodo areas for protection of land rights of indigenous people.

“And, the last point I would like to say is Assam should be saved to save India’s unity and integrity in the North East,” Advani added. Asked why the NDA government of A B Vajpayee failed to act against the problem of illegal infiltrators, Advani said “We were in office for one term and it did not make it possible for us to deal with numerous problems that we had on our hands... But we have agitated against infiltration whether we have been in power or out of power.”