Illegal migration may figure high on RSS agenda at Jodhpur meet | Lucknow News
Lucknow: The issue of illegal migration is expected to figure high on the agenda of the coordination meeting of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) scheduled to be convened in Jodhpur, Rajasthan, from Sept 5-7.According to a senior functionary of the RSS from Uttar Pradesh, the issue has been before the Sangh even as Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during his Independence Day speech on Aug 15, pitched for setting up a high-powered demographic mission to tackle challenges caused by infiltration.Senior BJP functionaries, including party president JP Nadda, national general secretary (organisation) head BL Santhosh, and others including Sunil Bansal and Shiv Prakash, are scheduled to attend the meeting. UP will be represented by state general secretary (organisation) Dharampal Singh, who also happens to be an RSS affiliate.The Sangh has long viewed illegal migration —especially from Bangladesh — as a demographic and cultural threat to Hindu-majority areas in Assam, Bengal, and parts of UP and Bihar. Experts said that the consistent push of RSS ensures that the BJP does not dilute its core nationalist plank while highlighting governance and welfare agendas.While being unequivocal in its insistence on vigilance against illegal immigration from Bangladesh, the RSS recently expressed concern that legitimate citizens should not be subjected to undue suspicion or hostility.The development comes close on the heels of the BJP’s attack on the opposition, primarily the Congress, for slamming the Election Commission of India (ECI) and accusing the saffron outfit of “vote theft”.The issue heightened after Congress MP Rahul Gandhi kicked up a political storm in Patna by alleging that the BJP began “stealing votes” for the first time in Gujarat much before “repeating the tactic” at the national level.The BJP countered the Congress allegation by releasing a video claiming that the Congress was scared of the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) undertaken in poll-bound Bihar to save its “vote bank” of “illegal migrants” which the party has been “protecting” for years. The video was also posted by UP BJP on X on Wednesday.The video highlighted that in Bihar alone, around 65 lakh illegal names have been removed under SIR, which, the party said, happens to be a routine exercise undertaken for the correction of the voter list. “SIR is a process to remove wrong votes, not to take away someone’s rights,” the BJP said in the video.Sources in UP BJP said that the party was also planning an awareness campaign vis-à-vis the voter list in the run-up to the 2027 assembly elections. “Purity of the voter list is indeed the most vital aspect of any electoral exercise, primarily undertaken by ECI at a designated time. Our party too has been and would again carry out a campaign for the purpose,” UP BJP state general secretary Subhash Yaduvansh told TOI.Yaduvansh, as chief of the UP unit of BJP’s youth arm Bharatiya Janta Yuva Morcha, helmed the state campaigns to spread awareness among genuine voters between 2015 and 2019.
