Delhi Polls: BJP's vision document, stirs up controversy, brands Northeastern people as 'Immigrants'

NEW DELHI: BJP’s vision document for the Delhi assembly polls on Tuesday stirred up a controversy by referring to people from north eastern states living in the national capital as “immigrants”. The party was quick to clarify it was a “clerical mistake” that will soon be corrected.

Congress was quick to react, with its leader Ajay Maken questioning “is BJP trying to say the people from the North East are not Indian citizens?” “The word immigrant is used when people move from one country to another, so does BJP consider people from the North-Eastern states as residents of some other country or the north-eastern states according to them are not part of India?” he asked.

Former Assam CM and founder of Asom Gana Parisad Prafulla Kumar Mahanta told ET that BJP has betrayed the people of northeast.

“Terming people of northeast as immigrants reveals the double speak of saffron party,” he said.

Talking to ET, Union minister for Home, Kiren Rijiju, who is also a BJP MP from Arunachal Pradesh, sought to set the controversy to rest. “It’s a clerical mistake. We will correct it,” he said. In Assam, BJP spokesperson Shiladitya dev said that immigrants does not mean foreigners. He said that steps BJP has promised in the document for those from north-eastern states living in Delhi are very bold. “Under UPA regime there were attacks on northeast students in different places,” he said. The Capital has witnessed a spate of racial attacks and discrimination against people from north east in the recent past.