Congress leader and MP from Barpeta, Abdul Khaleque came down heavily on Prime Minister Narendra Modi for “lying” on the detention camp issue.
Modi said at an election rally in Delhi that “there are no detention centres in India”. “Modi statement on detention camp has exposed the fake image of the government. Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Modi are making contradicting statements. I wonder how will they run the country.”
The Prime Minister also said that there had been no discussion or talks on implementing the National Register of Citizens (NRC) across the country. He was contradicting his own Home Minister Amit Shah, who has spoken of the matter not just in various forums, but even in parliament.
Shah on November 20th, 2019 informed the Upper House that the Supreme Court-monitored NRC will be updated afresh in Assam and will be a countrywide exercise.
On the other hand, Khaleque also demanded early released of peasants’ leader Akhil Gogoi from NIA’s custody.
“Whoever protests against the new citizenship act, the government frame him or her as anti-national. Gogoi has done nothing anti-national. He should be released without any conditions,” the MP said.
Akhil was arrested by Assam Police in Jorhat on December 12th, 2019 amid protests over the citizenship law. On December 13th, 2019, Guwahati police registered a suo moto case against him. The Assam government handed over the case to NIA on December 14th.
He was sent to 10-day NIA custody on December 17th, 2019 by a special court in Guwahati and was taken to NIA Headquarters in New Delhi. Akhil has been accused of having nexus with Maoist groups.
Photo credit: @MPAbdulKhaleque and Time8
