Haridwar, March 7 Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Saturday that it was the Congress's "politics of appeasement" that denied citizenship to Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain refugees.
He said that the Narendra Modi government will grant Indian citizenship to these refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan, regardless of the Congress's opposition.
Shah made the remarks while addressing the 'Jan Jan Ki Sarkar, Chaar Saal Bemisal' programme held at Bairagi Camp here to mark four years of Pushkar Singh Dhami's government in the state.
"I want to say that Hindu, Sikh, Buddhist, and Jain refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Afghanistan have as much right to this country as Narendra Modi," Shah said.
"Rahul Baba, protest as much as you want. We will grant citizenship; you cannot stop us," he said, referring to the former Congress president.
The home minister said the government removed encroachment by over 10,000 illegal migrants in Uttarakhand, and accused the Congress of spending all its energy in protecting them.
The Centre will expel every single infiltrator from the country, from Kedarnath to Kanyakumari, he asserted.
Shah congratulated 162 refugees from Afghanistan and Pakistan who received Indian citizenship certificates at the event. "This is the proof of our resolve to give shelter to the victims of religious harassment."
The minister said that the Universal Civil Code (UCC) will become instrumental in stemming the "demographic change" in the country. "The high-power demography mission brought by the Modi government will soon begin its work."
In 2025, Uttarakhand became the first in the country to implement the UCC, which ordains the same civil laws across religions.
The BJP leader accused Rahul Gandhi of seeing "negative" in everything, including the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) currently underway across states to rid the voter lists of infiltrators.
He said, "The BJP strongly supports the SIR being carried out by the Election Commission."
Shah listed the abolition of Article 370 of the Constitution, the enactment of the CAA, and the construction of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya as among the "historic" feats of the Modi government.
He termed the new Indian Judicial Code (BNS) as the most modern and scientific judicial code in the world.
Shah claimed that the BJP would continue its winning streak and would form governments in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu in 2026, and in Uttarakhand in 2027.
The home minister said that between 2004 and 2014, Uttarakhand received only Rs 54,000 crore from the central government, while the Modi government provided the state with Rs 1,87,000 crore.
He mentioned several other projects, including the All-Weather Char Dham Road Project and the Delhi-Dehradun Expressway, as the achievements of the BJP-led state-Centre.
During his visit, the minister inaugurated and laid the foundation stone of various projects worth Rs 1,129.91 crore.