Modi lying…., sanctioned Rs 46 cr for Detention Camp”: Tarun Gogoi

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi with Former Uttarakhand Chief Minister and congress in-charge of Assam Harish Rawat and Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President Ripun Bora (left)addressing a joint press conference , at Rajiv Bhawan in Guwahati on Friday, December 27, 2019, regarding Congress Leader Rahul Gandhi protest Rally against Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC) to be held at Veterinary College playground , Khanapara in Guwahati on Saturday 28 December . — GUWAHATI : Former CM & Senior Congress leader Tarun Gogoi on Friday called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “liar” for saying that there is no detention camp in the country and claimed that the BJP-led government at the Centre had sanctioned Rs 46 crore for one in Assam’s Goalpara district.

Tarun Gogoi today questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s claim that the country has no detention camps, saying that states were asked to set up such facilities to house illegal immigrants way back in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era.
“It was the Vajpayee government that first came up with the idea of constructing detention camps to accommodate foreigners who have completed the jail term for illegal entry into India. After Modi came to power, he gave Rs 46 crore to construct the country’s biggest detention centre with a capacity of 3,000 people. How can he now say that there are no detention centres?” he asked.
“In 2018 the Narendra Modi government had sanctioned
Rs 46 crore for constructing the largest detention centre at
Matia in Goalpara district of Assam for housing 3,000 illegal
immigrants.
Suddenly he says there is no detention camp,” Gogoi said. “Why did the BJP government in 2018 sanction Rs 46 crore? This shows Modi is a liar”, Gogoi asserted. Gogoi had led three consecutive governments in the state from 2001 to 2016.
“They (BJP) say these (detention) camps were set up bym the Congress. We set them up as per the order of the High Court to detain people who were declared ‘foreigners’ by the Foreigners’ Tribunal,” he added.
“When Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, he did not seriously discuss the issue of detention centres and illegal migrants with the states. His government did not take up the matter with Bangladesh either, and now Modi wants to give the impression that we are still a liberal country. That we don’t detain,” he said.

He said religion should not factor in the process of identifying illegal migrants or detaining them. “The reality is that there are more Hindus in detention camps than Muslims. So who is detaining these Hindus? It’s the BJP,” the former Chief Minister said, adding that there was “no distinction” between Hindus and Muslims during his rule.
In the face of rising protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, PM Modi had denied the existence of detention camps in India and a proposed plan to implement a nationwide NRC at a rally in Delhi’s Ramlila Maidan last Sunday.
(Bureau Report With Agency Inputs ).