New Delhi: In a major goof up Bhartiya Janta Party's ‘Vision Document', released today for the Delhi Assembly election, has addressed people from North East India as ‘immigrants.'
The title in the vision document reads out as “Special cells in all police stations and special 24 hour helpline numbers to be set up for the protection of the NorthEastern migrants. To safeguard the Students of North East origin, special guardianship will be arranged with local families for them.”
However, it seems that the document was written in a hurry and in a move to address all the issues the vision document refers the people from India's Northeast as immigrants.
Congress leader Ajay Maken said, “Is BJP trying to say the people from the NorthEast are not Indian citizens.” He also demanded that the BJP remove this line from its vision document.
However Minister of State for Home Affairs Kiran Rijiju while dismissing the matter as a typing error, has said that people living in the same country cannot be termed as immigrants. The national capital has seen various instances of racial attacks on the people originally hailing from North Eastern region of India.
Minister of State for Commerce Nirmala Sitharaman said “it is a printing mistake, we will correct it. One must go behind BJP's intentions of focusing on north eastern region and help the people from the region.”
The national capital has witnessed a spate of racial attacks and discrimination against people from north east in the recent past and a NE student Nido Taniam, son of of an Arunachal MLA, died after being badly beaten by shopkeepers at a Lajpat Nagar market here.
The Centre had formed a special committee headed by North Eastern Council member M P Bezbaruah to recommend steps to address the concerns of people from NE region living across the country.
The word “immigrant” kicked up a controversy over social media too with people criticising the reference.
