Bharatiya Janata Party General Secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya on Thursday said the “strange eating habits” of some labourers at his house aroused suspicion in him about their nationality, reported PTI. “They were eating only poha [flattened rice],” he said while speaking at a seminar in support of the amended citizenship law in Indore. “I suspected these workers were residents of Bangladesh. Two days after I became suspicious, they stopped working at my house.”
Poha, made from flattened rice, is a nutritious yet cheap snack. It is often eaten for breakfast or brunch. It is popular in many parts of the country.
Vijayvarigiya said he has not yet filed any police complaint. “I only mentioned this incident to warn people,” he added.
The BJP leader also claimed that a Bangladeshi terrorist was tracking him for the last one-and-a-half years. “Whenever I go out, six armed security personnel follow me,” he said. “What is happening in this country? Will outside people enter and spread so much terror.”
Vijayvargiya added that the amended citizenship law was in the country’s interest and urged people not to get misled by rumours. “This law will provide asylum to genuine refugees and identify intruders who are a threat to the country’’s internal security,” he added.
Later, Vijayvargiya told journalists that the BJP does not take Chandra Kumar Bose, the grand nephew of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, seriously. “Chandra Bose who has come from the Forward Bloc, is a new entrant in BJP,” he said, according to The New Indian Express. “At times he doesn’t comprehend the BJP ideology, which is why we don’t take his statements very seriously.”
Bose has been critical of the BJP’s stand regarding the contentious citizenship law in the recent past. Last month, he had defied the party line on the matter, and said that India was always open to all religions and communities. Earlier this week, Bose, who is the vice president of the BJP’s West Bengal unit, had said that a “slight modification” in the Citizenship Amendment Act – removing mention of specific religions – would “fizzle out” the entire Opposition campaign.
Congress leader Bhupendra Gupta asked why Vijayvargiya had to talk about the “Bangladesh terrorist” while speaking at a seminar on the citizenship law. “Terrorism is a universal phenomenon and many politicians in our country and across the globe are on terror target,” he said, according to The New Indian Express. “But what’s the need for publicly saying it to support the CAA?”
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