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Will bring laws to tackle ‘love and land jihad’: Shah
Union minister says while ‘refugees’ will get citizenship rights, ‘infiltrators’ won’t be allowed in Assam
Biswa Kalyan Purkayastha and Agencies
SILCHAR: Union home minister Amit Shah said on Friday that the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will enact laws to tackle the “menace of love and land jihad” in Assam, asserting that only “refugees” will be given citizenship rights, while “infiltrators ” will not be allowed to enter the state. The three-phased Assam assembly elections will begin on Saturday.
“I give assurance that refugees who come to
Assam will be given citizenship rights, but infiltrators will not be allowed inside the state... The next
BJP government will enact laws to tackle the menace of ‘love and land jihad’ in Assam,” Shah was quoted as saying by news agency PTI.
The contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which has been a major poll plank for Opposition parties in Assam, has not found any mention in the BJP manifesto or its rallies, except by party president JP Nadda who recently said that the Act is a “legislation passed by Parliament and will be implemented in time”.
In 2019, violent protests erupted after Parliament approved the Citizenship Amendment Bill which seeks to fast-track the grant of citizenship to non-Muslim minorities from neighbouring countries of Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan.
The term “love jihad” is used by right-wing activists to describe relationships between Muslim men and Hindu women, but one that the courts and the Union government do not officially recognise. During a rally in Silchar, Shah also accused the Congress-All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) combine of encouraging infiltration in the state. “If they come to power, infiltration will increase and change the demographic identity of the state.” He also accused AIUDF MP Badruddin Ajmal of supporting encroachment of ‘sattras’ (Vaishnavite monasteries), other places of worship and the Kaziranga National Park. “This land jihad must stop.”