A serious Centre-state row is brewing following Rajasthan CM Vasundhara Raje’s claim that she was advised by the Union home ministry to round up Bangladeshi nationals.
A week after the blasts, it’s not the state and the Centre fighting terrorists, but...
NEW DELHI: A serious Centre-state row is brewing following Rajasthan chief minister Vasundhara Raje’s claim that she was advised by the Union home ministry to round up Bangladeshi nationals residing in Jaipur and put them in a “transit camp”.
Visibly rattled by Raje’s claim, which has the capacity of becoming a potent weapon in the coming assembly elections in the state, ministry officials sought to dismiss it. In a guarded statement to a TV channel, home minister Shivraj Patil said that “in a democracy like India, people cannot be thrown out without following the governing laws and rules”.
Sources categorically stated that no communication was sent to Raje in response to her June 7, 2007, letter seeking the Centre’s advice to tackle the menace of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. This issue has been repeatedly discussed with the state chief ministers to find a way out. And the only reference, if ever, made in this connection was to the relevant provision of the Foreigners Act 1946, Section 3(2c). It provides for setting up of detention centres to keep illegal immigrants till the time they are deported to their country of origin.
Sources further said the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants had been repeatedly discussed with the chief ministers during the last few years. “But no directive to set up transit camps was ever given to any of the states,” they added.
Raje’s bid to corner the Congress-led UPA government is being viewed as a clever ploy to shift the blame for last week’s serial blasts in Jaipur to the Centre. She has packed her tirade against the UPA dispensation with the politically explosive illegal immigrants issue with an eye on the state assembly elections slated later this year, seeking to achieve more than one goal.
Raje has triggered a debate which promises to bring national security issues, particularly enactment of Pota-like stringent laws and the security risk posed by illegal immigrants, to the political centre-stage. This could help the saffron party divert attention from the strong anti-incumbency factor prevailing in the state.
a_anil@dnaindia.net
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
)
)
)
)
)
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}
){kind=small}