Bhopal: Congress stages protest over deportation of Indian immigrants from US
Bhopal, Feb 7 (IANS) Amid nationwide row over deportation of over 100 illegal Indian immigrants by the US, the opposition Congress here staged a protest on Friday.
Hundreds of Congress workers, including state unit head Jitu Patwari, carried out a protest march handcuffed, and they criticised ‘inhuman’ act of the US.
They submitted that the Central government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi should act on it.
Through their protest, Congress workers also targeted PM Modi, saying the way Indian nationals were deported by the US was condemnable.
“Indian nationals were treated like terrorists, and it was insult of the entire India. Our Prime Minister says India is heading to towards becoming world leader and he has brought country’s glory across the world, but the way Indian nationals were treated and deported by US, it proved that all claims of the BJP government are wrong,” Jitu Patwari said.
The Madhya Pradesh Congress unit held the protest on Friday a day after the party’s central leadership along with other opposition leaders took up the matter in the Parliament on Thursday.
Several opposition leaders have slammed the Centre for the way Indian citizens were deported, mainly questioning the treatment meted out to them.
Notably, a US military aircraft carrying Indian nationals, arrived in Punjab’s Amritsar on Wednesday.
Following the uproar by the Opposition, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has made a statement in the Parliament on Thursday, saying that the Centre would be engaging with the US government to ensure that the deportees were not mistreated in any manner while being sent back.
EAM Jaishankar has said that a total of 15,756 illegal Indian immigrants were deported to India from the US since 2009.
He has also stated in the Parliament THAT the deportation of illegal migrants was not a new development, and the use of restraints on the deportees was a “standard operating procedure”.
–IANS
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