GUWAHATI, May 7 � Reacting to Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi�s allegation that the carnage in BTAD was triggered by BJP�s prime ministerial Narendra Modi�s statement that Bangladeshi nationals would have to leave India, public activist Prof Deven Dutta today said that it was the foremost duty of any Government to protect the integrity of the country from any threat, including illegal migration.
�Modi said that Bangladeshis and not Muslims will have to leave India, and no sensible person will find fault with such a statement. Both the Government of India and the Assam Government have been turning a blind eye to the unabated cross-border infiltration from Bangladesh and the grave danger to the indigenous people for nearly seven decades,� he said.
Prof Dutta said that if Modi�s statement was communal, then even Mahatma Gandhi must also be treated as communal because he launched the Freedom Struggle against the British who were Christians or were an English-speaking community.
�If Modi is wrong in asking the Bangladeshis to leave India, by the same yardstick Mahatma Gandhi, too, was wrong and communal in asking the British to leave India and in waging a long-drawn non-violent war against them. While the British invaded India with force, cross-border infiltration from Bangladesh is a disguised invasion with very disturbing consequences. Now let Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi admit that Mahatma Gandhi was communal,� he said.
