Ranchi, June 26 (IANS) Union Minister and senior BJP leader Giriraj Singh on Thursday launched an attack on both the Congress party over the imposition of Emergency in 1975 and the Hemant Soren-led Jharkhand government over alleged infiltration of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas into the state.

Addressing a press conference at the Jharkhand BJP headquarters here, Singh said the Soren government had effectively turned parts of the state into a “Jamai Tola” (a reference to areas allegedly settled by illegal immigrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar), posing a serious threat to the existence and identity of Jharkhand’s indigenous tribal population.

“The country fought a second war of independence during the Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975. Today, Jharkhand needs a third war of independence to liberate itself from this ‘Jamai Tola’ of Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators,” Singh said.

Calling upon the youth of Jharkhand to lead this “fight for liberation,” the Union Minister alleged that the Soren government was compromising national security and tribal rights for vote-bank politics.

Turning his focus to the Emergency, Giriraj Singh said today’s generation must be reminded of the dark chapter in Indian democracy.

“There are 105 crore Indians below the age of 50, and many of them don’t know that we once had a Prime Minister named Indira Gandhi who trampled democracy. After the courts ruled against her, she imposed an unconstitutional Emergency and jailed over two lakh political workers without trial. Over 25,000 government employees were sacked, and thousands were subjected to forced sterilisations,” he said.

He further alleged that Indira Gandhi rose to power through dynastic politics, claiming, “Dynasty and democracy can never go hand in hand.”

Singh accused the Congress of taking religious support while being responsible for religious repression during the Emergency. “Today, fatwas are being issued from mosques in favour of the Congress, but it was Indira Gandhi who targeted both temples and mosques during the Emergency. As many as 77,000 people were forcibly evicted from mosque premises during that time,” he claimed.

He demanded that the Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in Lok Sabha, Rahul Gandhi, and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge apologise to the nation for what he described as the party’s “dictatorial past” and its attempts to “mislead the people.”

–IANS

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