We have no humanity for Muslims from other countries, says BJP’s national secretary

Only minorities in those countries subjected to persecution will be considered for citizenship

Bharatiya Janata Party national secretary Sunil Deodhar addressing the media in Anantapur on Sunday. R.V.S. PRASAD

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) national secretary Sunil Deodhar said there will be no humanity shown towards Muslims coming illegally into India even if they are persecuted in the three Islamic countries - Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.

Speaking to mediapersons here on Sunday, Mr. Deodhar said the BJP does not want to turn India into a Dharamshala (Hospice) as all Muslims coming into India from the Muslim-majority nations for whatever reasons, were not welcome, and no citizenship would be offered to them. “It is the responsibility of those three nations to take care of their majority population as ‘partition’ of the country happened on the basis of religion. Only minorities in those countries subjected to persecution will be considered for citizenship, which was proposed by the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, but never became a reality,” the party leader said.

CAA in election manifesto

The minority population in Pakistan was 20 per cent at the time of ‘partition’, but has come down significantly to 9.9 per cent, which, Mr. Deodhar said explained how they suffered. Blaming Jawaharlal Nehru and the Congress for allowing Chittagong to be merged with Bangladesh at a time when 80 per cent of the population was Buddhist Chakmas, he said it was in the manifesto of the Jan Sangh and the BJP to bring the CAA, abrogate Article 370 and build the Ram Mandir.

“Congress and the Communist parties always wanted citizenship given to persecuted minorities. But never made it happen, though the then Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi of Assam had written to the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,” the BJP national leader said, and expressed dismay at the opposition from them for the CAA.

Taking a dig at former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he alleged that Imran Khan and Rahul Gandhi speak in the same manner on several topics related to India.

‘Khilafat’ in Congress’ genes

Later, speaking at a meeting of intellectuals and party cadre in a function hall, Mr. Sunil Deodhar thanked UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath for getting the details of arsonists and recovering money from the people who destroyed public property. Taking a dig at the Congress for opposing the CAA, he said ‘Khilafat’ movement was in the genes of Congress leaders and they were resorting to similar agitations now, he observed.