Home Minister Amit Shah told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday that the National Democratic Alliance government will “detect, delete and deport illegal immigrants” from the country. His comments came during a heated discussion on electoral reforms, which ended with the Opposition walking out.
Shah used his speech to respond to questions raised by Leader of Opposition Rahul Gandhi, who had criticised the Special Intensive Revision of electoral rolls announced by the Election Commission earlier this year. Shah accused Gandhi of spreading misinformation about “vote chori” and said some families had been “generational vote thieves”. He added that the Opposition was opposing the revision because they wanted to keep “infiltrators” on voter lists.
When Gandhi challenged him to debate allegations of malpractice in the Haryana elections, Shah replied that he would answer all questions but would not allow the LoP to decide the order of his speech. “I will decide the order of my topics and not him,” he said. Gandhi later said outside Parliament that Shah had avoided all his questions.
Shah said the Opposition’s real intention was to protect the names of “foreign infiltrators” in the electoral rolls. After the Opposition walked out, he said, “Even if they walk out 200 times, we will not allow even a single infiltrator.” He stressed that the government’s approach will be to “detect, delete and deport”.
He also said that the Election Commission has the constitutional duty to maintain clean and accurate voter lists. According to him, the first such intensive revision was done in 1952 when Jawaharlal Nehru was Prime Minister. “From 1952 to 2004, no party opposed this process. It is meant to ensure transparency,” he said. He added that the Opposition only criticises the system when they lose elections. “If the voter list is wrong, then why did you take oath?” he asked.
Shah said the revision is necessary to remove names of foreigners, duplicate entries and deceased people. “Can any country remain safe if infiltrators decide who becomes Prime Minister or Chief Minister?” he said.
Responding to objections that the Chief Justice of India is not part of the panel for selecting Election Commissioners, Shah said that for 73 years there was no law at all and appointments were made directly by the Prime Minister. The 2023 law, he said, created a more transparent system. “At least they have 33 percent share now. In their time, we had none,” he said.
On the decision to delete CCTV footage from polling booths after 45 days, Shah explained that election petitions can only be filed within that period under the Representation of People Act. “If petitions can be filed only within 45 days, how will CCTV footage help after that?” he said.
Shah also responded to concerns about border infiltration. He said only 563 kilometres of the border, all in West Bengal, remains unfenced. “In all other states it has been completed,” he said.
