UPA deported many more illegal Bangladeshis, says Cong leader

Senior Congress leader R P N Singh on Thursday said the BJP government at the Centre has deported only 1800 Bangaladeshi infiltrators since 2014, while 82,000 such illegal immigrants had been sent back during the 10 years of the UPA rule.

Singh, the party's in-charge of Jharkhand, also accused the BJP led NDA government at the Centre of failing to fulfill its promises.

BJP president Amit Shah have been claiming that the government would initiate action against Bangladeshi infiltrators but deported only 1800 during its four-and-a- half-year tenure, he said.

In between 2004-2014, the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh deported 82,000 Bangladeshi infiltrators, Singh said.

"These figures were not ours but presented by the government in Parliament," he said.

Singh said the government has recently assured the parliament that no Bangladeshi would be deported.

The Congress Working Committee member also lambasted the BJP for allegedly politicising the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) ahead of the Lok Sabha election next year.

The NRC was in fact initiated by the Congress as the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had signed the Assam Accord in 1985, Singh told a press conference here.

Asked whether the Congress would favour implementation of NRC across the country, he said it was framed specifically for Assam following the Assam accord signed in 1985.

Demanding that the government make the Rafale deal public, Singh charged it with failing to fulfill promises like providing employment to two crore youths every year and to check corruption in the country.

On who would be the Prime Ministerial candidate of the UPA in the Loks Sabha poll, Singh said the clear stand of the Congress as well as some of its allies was that Congress president Lok Gandhi should be the candidate for the post.

On Jharkhand, he said, "We have discussion with leaders of various allies and our effort will be to form a grand alliance."