Delhi, Sept 24: Raising the issue of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, BJP president Amit Shah Sunday said “infiltrators have entered the country” and are “eating it like termites”.
Hitting out at Congress president Rahul Gandhi and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal at a rally in Ramlila Maidan, Shah said the two speak out in favour of illegal immigrants because they care only about vote-bank politics. He also asked them to clarify their stand on the NRC, which is being updated in Assam.
Addressing the Purvanchal Mahakumbh event, organised by the Delhi BJP, Shah said, “Delhi ke andar avaidh ghuspethiyon se pareshani hai ya nahin? Inhe desh se nikalna chahiye ya nahin? 100 crore ki tadad mein ghuspethiye ghus gaye hain aur deemak ki tarah chaat gaye hain desh ko. Ukhad phenkna chahiye ya nahi? (Are you bothered because of illegal immigrants in Delhi or not? Should they be thrown out or not? 100 crore infiltrators have entered our country and are eating the country like termites. Should we throw them out or not?) But as we start talking about uprooting them, Rahul Gandhi and others start to crow. They (illegal immigrants) enter here, throw bombs and kill innocent citizens of the country. Should we not protect human rights of our people?”
BJP president Amit Shah, along with other leaders at the event. (Express photo by Prem Nath Pandey)
He also hit out at Kejriwal, saying that he lies and has not done any work for the city. Kejriwal promptly responded on Twitter and challenged Shah to a debate at the same venue. “I challenge you, come let us have a public debate at Ramlila Maidan before the people of Delhi,” he tweeted.
In his half hour speech, Shah further said, “Kejriwal ji in the last four years, what work have you done for the people of Delhi? Delhi’s CM… knows only one thing — to lie and to lie more. There is no vision for the development of Delhi and the party just does politics of protest.” He also said that the BJP will win all seven Lok Sabha seats in the capital.
Listing the work done by the Modi government, he said the BJP government had given Rs 13.80 lakh crore to Poorvanchal states under the 14th Finance Commission, unlike the previous Congress government.
To this, Kejriwal replied in a tweet, “Amit Shah ji, how much money did your government give Delhi under the 14th Finance Commission? Merely Rs 325 crore. People of Purvanchal reside in Delhi also. Why did your government not provide money for their development? Why was there discrimination against the Poorvanchalis living in Delhi?”
Shah also asked the Congress president and the AAP to clear their stand on “urban Naxalism” before the polls. He also criticised the Mahagathbandhan of the opposition parties and asked people to choose between “Majboot Sarkar” or “Majboor Sarkar”.
Courtesy: indianexpress.com
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New York, Apr 7 (PTI): The US Supreme Court has rejected 26/11 Mumbai terror attack accused Tahawwur Rana's appeal seeking a stay on his extradition to India, moving him closer to being handed over to Indian authorities to face justice.
Rana, 64, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles.
He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks. Headley conducted a recce of Mumbai before the attacks by posing as an employee of Rana’s immigration consultancy.
Rana had submitted an ‘Emergency Application For Stay Pending Litigation of Petition For Writ of Habeas Corpus' on February 27, 2025, with Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States and Circuit Justice for the Ninth Circuit Elena Kagan.
Kagan had denied the application earlier last month.
Rana had then renewed his ‘Emergency Application for Stay Pending Litigation of Petition for Writ of Habeas Corpus previously addressed to Justice Kagan’, and requested that the renewed application be directed to US Chief Justice John Roberts.
An order on the Supreme Court website noted that Rana's renewed application had been “distributed for Conference” on April 4 and the “application” has been “referred to the Court.”
A notice on the Supreme Court website Monday said that “Application denied by the Court.”
Rana was convicted in the US of one count of conspiracy to provide material support to the terrorist plot in Denmark and one count of providing material support to Pakistan-based terrorist organisation Lashker-e-Taiba which was responsible for the attacks in Mumbai.
New York-based Indian-American attorney Ravi Batra had told PTI that Rana had made his application to the Supreme Court to prevent extradition, which Justice Kagan denied on March 6. The application was then submitted before Roberts, “who has shared it with the Court to conference so as to harness the entire Court’s view.”
The Supreme Court justices are Associate Justice Clarence Thomas, Associate Justice Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Associate Justice Sonia Sotomayor, Associate Justice Elena Kagan, Associate Justice Neil M. Gorsuch, Associate Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh, Associate Justice Amy Coney Barrett, and Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson.
In his emergency application, Rana had sought a stay of his extradition and surrender to India pending litigation (including exhaustion of all appeals) on the merits of his February 13.
In that petition, Rana argued that his extradition to India violates US law and the UN Convention Against Torture "because there are substantial grounds for believing that, if extradited to India, the petitioner will be in danger of being subjected to torture."
"The likelihood of torture in this case is even higher though as petitioner faces acute risk as a Muslim of Pakistani origin charged in the Mumbai attacks,” the application said.
The application also said that his “severe medical conditions” render extradition to Indian detention facilities a “de facto" death sentence in this case.
The US Supreme Court denied Rana's petition for a writ of certiorari relating to his original habeas petition on January 21. The application notes that on that same day, newly-confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio had met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar.
When Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Washington on February 12 to meet with Trump, Rana’s counsel received a letter from the Department of State, stating that “on February 11, 2025, the Secretary of State decided to authorise” Rana’s "surrender to India,” pursuant to the “Extradition Treaty between the United States and India”.
Rana’s Counsel requested from the State Department the complete administrative record on which Secretary Rubio based his decision to authorize Rana’s surrender to India.
The Counsel also requested immediate information of any commitment the United States has obtained from India with respect to Rana’s treatment. “The government declined to provide any information in response to these requests,” the application said.
It added that given Rana’s underlying health conditions and the State Department’s findings regarding the treatment of prisoners, it is very likely “Rana will not survive long enough to be tried in India".
During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Modi in the White House in February, President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.
A total of 166 people, including six Americans, were killed in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks in which 10 Pakistani terrorists laid a more than 60-hour siege, attacking and killing people at iconic and vital locations in Mumbai.