Former Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) leader Praveen Togadia on Wednesday said the Indian Army should occupy a portion of Bangladesh and settle the illegal immigrants there.
The Hindutva hardliner, who now heads the Antarrashtriya Hindu Parishad (AHP), a breakaway faction of the VHP, was speaking in Guwahati despite the administration banning his public meetings in Assam for two months.
“There are around 50 lakh illegal immigrants. In the last two years, only 17 have been deported. The BJP government which came on the promise of deporting illegal immigrants has taken a U-turn. Now Indian Army should occupy a portion of land in Bangladesh and settle them there if Bangladesh refuses to take them back,” Togadia said, attacking the Sarbananda Sonowal-led Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government.
Taking another jibe, Togadia said how he wondered if it was still a Tarun Gogoi-led government in Assam seeing the way the present government is appeasing Muslims.
The Hindutva leader was upset over the police ban on him addressing a public meeting in the city or making any inflammatory statement in front of the media for two months.
He was also banned from addressing the media at the Guwahati Press Club. However, he chose another locality for the press conference.
Reacting to Togadia’s remarks, state BJP president Ranjit Das said, “The BJP does not discriminate on the basis of religion or caste. There is no question of appeasement. The work of detection of foreigners is on. There is no deportation treaty. Can we do it just because Praveen Togadia is saying? We will work according to the Constitution.”
“The statements that we have seen so far do not come in the communal category,” Hiren Nath, Commissioner of Police, said. “He did not use the word Muslim or Hindu,” he said. “Still we will see what he spoke and accordingly decide if any action is warranted,” Nath said.
Togadia met Nath in the evening and requested that he be allowed to address the public meeting. “We refused,” Nath said.
Source: HindustanTimes