GUWAHATI, Dec 19 – BJP activists today courted arrest during its ‘Jail bharo’ agitation in the State demanding deletion of names of Bangladeshi migrants from the voters’ list ahead of the forthcoming assembly polls in the State.
Party activists raised slogans and took out processions before staging demonstrations in front of the offices of the deputy commissioners and sub-divisional officers throughout the State.
In the city, the BJP protesters led by local MP and party national vice-president Bijoya Chakraborty blocked the main road in front of the Kamrup (Metro) DC’s office.
“We staged demonstrations in all the four constituencies of Guwahati, and the programme was a big success with the participation of some 5,000 BJP activists. The illegal voters’ names must be deleted from the voters’ list, as it has grave ramifications on the State’s socio-political fronts,” Chakraborty told The Assam Tribune. She also said that the party decried Congress MP Rahul Gandhi’s reported statement terming Hindu terror as a bigger threat to India than Islamic terror, and demanded that Gandhi be arrested.
The BJP has been raising the issue of an abnormal increase in the number of voters in the last few decades in Assam.
“The State’s electorate growth trend of 2004-06 reflected large-scale infiltration of illegal Bangladeshis to every nook and corner of the State. Out of the 126 constituencies in the State, 82 recorded over seven per cent growth per annum in the number of electorates in the years between 2004 and 2006 as against the 1.67 per cent all-India growth from 1999 to 2004. Out of these 82 constituencies, 18 recorded over 10 per cent annual growth of electorates, the highest being recorded in Dhekiajuli constituency at 22.5 per cent per annum,” Shiladitya Dev, national secretary, BJP Kishan Morcha, who led the protest at Haflong, the headquarters of Dima Haaso (NC Hills) district, said.
The protesters later submitted a memorandum to the Chief Election Commissioner of India through the deputy commissioner of the Dima Hasao district, urging him to take urgent steps to prepare a correct voters’ list by deleting the names of the Bangladeshi nationals before the Assembly elections.
The BJP activists led by Dev besides Kulendra Daulagupu, State president, BJP ST Morcha, Assam Pradesh and Banani Kemprai, BJP district president, Dima Hasao took out a protest procession from the Cultural Institute Hall to the main road in front of the Office of the Deputy Commissioner.
“This high rise in the number of voters is not due to normal growth of population, but because of the inclusion of the names of the Bangladeshis who have been illegally infiltrating into the State. It is crystal clear that Assam’s voters list contains the names of lakhs of illegal foreigners,” Dev said, adding that the Bangladeshi nationals had changed the demographic profile of Assam and were now ready to become the kings in the 2011 assembly elections.
“Not only have the Bangladeshis changed the demographic profile of the State, but have also encroached thousands of hectares of forest and tribal land in the State as well as created social tensions with the rise of anti-social activities like kidnapping of Hindu girls, rape, smuggling, intimidation, etc., in these areas,” Dev said, adding that this was happening due to the appeasement politics of the present Congress-led Government.
“In the name of a fair voters’ list the Government is only harassing the Hindu migrants who are being killed in Bangladesh with none to protect them,” Dev said.
Daulagupu said that the vote-bank politics of the Congress was responsible for this sorry state of affairs and this alarming situation would continue as long as the Congress remained in power.
