No foreign nationals in Bihar SIR: CPI (ML) Liberation questions PM's 'infiltrator' remark

New Delhi, Aug 16 (PTI) There has not been been cited a single case of illegal immigrants in the Bihar SIR, CPI (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation leader Dipankar Bhattacharya said on Saturday, challenging Prime Minister Narendra Modi's statement on infiltrators in the country.

The Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation general secretary was addressing a press conference in Delhi, a day before opposition parties were set to launch a Vote Adhikar Yatra in Bihar against the ongoing SIR exercise.

"PM Modi gave his longest Independence Day speech, but the important point is that the theme of Independence Day is now being reduced to partition," Bhattacharya said.

"It is as if the government is trying to finish the incomplete agenda of partition," he said.

The Left leader said that the 65 lakh voters who have been deleted after the first phase of the Special Intensive Revision in Bihar, none of them have been claimed to be foreign nationals by the Election Commission.

"But once again, Modi Ji has brought back that agenda, completely unsubstantiated, the bogey of illegal immigration, infiltration. And the things that they are doing to change our demography, taking away all jobs, occupying land, getting married to women and forcing conversion.

"This is a total anti-immigrant agenda of the RSS and BJP. This is what led to partition, perhaps they want another partition..." he said.

He also wondered how the government came to conclude on the quantum of foreign nationals entering India illegally, when there has been no Census since 2011.

"It has created a tone of terror in the country, it has created major insecurity, and when you sort of view it together with the ongoing SIR, the backdoor NRC, the ongoing so-called police verification drive, the MHA circular, so it creates before us the danger of a huge social division and the creation of a permanent category of disenfranchised people," he said.

The CPI(ML) leader also challenged the EC's claim that political parties have not raised any objections to the claims being submitted during the SIR underway, and said there is no provision for parties or the booth level agents, or BLAs, to appeal on behalf of the voter.

"Zero complaints from BLAs, then that will be one of the biggest lies of the whole SIR campaign... They thought they could show zero error by showing zero complaint, but the errors have already been exposed," he said, referring to cases like that of Mintoo Paswan, who has been declared dead in the SIR.

Talking about the Voter Adhikar Yatra, scheduled to be launched in Bihar by the Mahagathbandhan on Sunday, he said, "We will take out a yatra in each of the nine divisions of Bihar." He added, "We will hold public meetings, meet locals, and have nukkad sabhas. We will also try to find what kind of problems are being faced by voters in the SIR exercise." On Friday, in his address to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort, Modi said his government has decided to start a high-powered demographic mission to tackle illegal infiltration. PTI AO VN VN