BJP hits back at Cong with PC video on NPR

NEW DELHI: The BJP and the Congress on Thursday traded barbs over PM’S speech that there were no detention camps in India. It began with former Congress president Rahul Gandhi using hashtag #Jhootjhootjhoot along with the caption “The Prime Minister of the RSS lies to Mother India” in Hindi.

Within a couple of hours, BJP’S IT cell in-charge Amit Malviya tweeting a screenshot of Press Information Bureau’s 2011 press release with the title ‘362 illegal migrants sent to detention camps in Assam’. “Rahul Gandhi. Seen this press release from 2011 issued by the Congress govt claiming to have sent 362 illegal migrants to ‘detention camps’ in Assam. Just because India has rejected you repeatedly, are you hell bent on destroying it with your politics of hate and fear mongering?” Malviya said in his tweet.

Addressing a rally in Delhi on Sunday, the PM had said there were no detention centres in India. “No Muslim is being sent to detention centres, nor are there any detention centres in India,” he had said. The opposition had taken strong exception to Prime Minister’s remarks. “Does PM Modi believe Indians can’t do a simple Google search to factcheck his lies? Detention Centres are extremely real and will continue to grow as long as this government is in power,” the Congress posted on Twitter.

Congress leader P Chidambaram also came under a sharp attack from the BJP that put out videos from his days as the home minister to underscore the Congress connection to the National Population Register, or NPR. Chidambaram, who was appointed home minister after the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008, had led the effort within the Congress-led UPA government to build a national database of residents. The first round of data was collected in 2010.

In the first video Malviya shared, Chidambaram is seen talking about the NPR. “This is the first time in human history that we are beginning to identify, count, enumerate, record and eventually issue an identity card to 120 crore people,” he is heard saying. Nearly 20 hours later, the Congress leader responded to this video, saying “there was no mention of NRC” in his statement. He also challenged the government to stick to the 2010 version of the NPR if it had no intention to link it to the controversial NRC promised by the BJP.

Malviya delivered his comeback to Chidambaram’s barb with another video. “Mr Chidambaram, Your memory seems to be failing you. Let me help you a bit here…,” he tweeted.

In this one, Chidambaram explains the NPR process.