India: Ruling BJP seeks detection of illegal migrants

By Shuriah Niazi

NEW DELHI (AA) – India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s leaders are demanding a nationwide drive to identify illegal migrants, by asking all inhabitants to prove their citizenship.

In the northeastern state of Assam, a seven-year long exercise was concluded recently, where residents had to prove their Indian citizenship. The BJP leaders say a similar exercise should be repeated in whole country.

In Assam, the exercise called National Register of Citizens (NRC) has declared almost two million people non-citizens.

Taking a swipe at the city BJP President Manoj Tiwari, Chief Minister of Indian capital Delhi Arvind Kejriwal, said the NRC exercise, if implemented in the city, would render the BJP leader stateless.

Tiwari belongs to eastern Indian state of Bihar around 1,150 kilometers from the capital.

Tiwari had demanded implementation of the NRC in Delhi, in order to identify illegal migrants, whom he believed are responsible for the increase in crime rate in the metropolis.

According to Hindustan Times, Tiwari has on several occasions demanded an Assam-like NRC exercise in Delhi.

Defending his rationale for demanding such an exercise, Tiwari said it will put a check on the spurt in crimes.

He attributed increase in crimes to the presence of illegal migrants.

The singer-turned-politician Tiwari said the remark of Kejriwal has exposed his "real face" and alleged that the chief minister wants to evict migrants from eastern Indian states living in the metropolis, identifying foreigners staying illegally.