BJP govt will bring laws to curb both ‘love and land jihad’: Shah
Union home minister accuses Cong-AIUDF tie-up of encouraging infiltration to change Assam’s demography
KAMALPUR (ASSAM): The next BJP government will enact laws to tackle the “menace of love and land jihad” in Assam, Union home minister Amit Shah said on Friday, as he accused the Congress-AIUDF alliance of encouraging infiltration that threatened to change the state’s demography.
Addressing election rallies, Shah said appropriate laws and policies will be put in place to strengthen Assamese culture and civilisation.
The BJP manifesto, which was released a few days ago, apart from promising laws against love and land jihad, said its government will enforce a deradicalisation policy to identify and quash organisations and individuals fanning communal exclusion and separatism.
Shah alleged that it was the under the Congress government’s patronage that infiltrators brought in with AIUDF chief and MP Badruddin Ajmal’s support encroached land of ‘sattras’ (Vaishnavite monasteries) and other places of worship, besides that of the Kaziranga National Park. “This land jihad must stop,” he asserted. “Badruddin Ajmal indulged these infiltrators in order to change Assam’s identity and civilisation. He may be the Congress’s identity but not that of Assam. Give BJP the mandate for another five years and we will ensure that this land jihad ends,” he added.
While the concept of “love jihad” is well known and BJP governments in some states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have enacted laws to prevent forced religious conversion for marriage, little is known about “land jihad” beyond Assam.
Many state BJP leaders have alleged that Hindus were being forced to sell off their land in Muslim majority areas because of harassment which they call “land jihad”.
Shah accused the Congress and AIUDF of encouraging inflitration for their vested interest.
“If they come to power, infiltration will increase and change the demographic identity of the state,” he alleged. “The Congress manifesto is merely a tool for election campaign but the BJP manifesto is meant for implementation,” he asserted.
The home minister also accused Congress leader Rahul Gandhi of saying Ajmal represented Assam’s identity. “He (Gandhi) does not understand Assam and its identity.”
Assam’s identity is linked to Vaishnav saints Srimanta Sankardeva and Madhavdeva, brave Ahom general Lachit Barphukan who saved the state from Mughal invasion and Bharat Ratnas Bhupen Hazarika and Gopinath Bordoloi, he said. “We will not allow Ajmal to become a symbol of Assam’s identity notwithstanding Congress’s efforts to do so. Can the Congress and AIUDF save the state from illegal infiltration?” he said.
“Rahul baba should remember that it was their chief minister Tarun Gogoi who once dismissively asked about the AIUDF chief ‘Who is Ajmal?’ And now it is the Congress which has joined hands with Ajmal to gather votes. I think Gogoiji has got his answer in heaven,” he said.
Calling the Congress a “soldout” party, Shah said, “It has no agenda left except for promoting the tourism plans of the brothersister duo (Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi).