Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has raised concerns about the government’s approach to deporting illegal Indian immigrants from the United States. With words laced with sarcasm, he asked whether Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who is flying back to India from America after meeting US President Donald Trump, is bringing in his plane “handcuffed deportees as a gift.”
Taking a strong objection to Amritsar being a choice of venue where the second lot of deportees are going to land, Mann said he would launch a protest.
“They are saying that the second flight will also land in Amritsar, but why? I have reached out to the Ministry of External Affairs [MEA] and the Ministry of Home Affairs [MHA] to explain their criteria for choosing Amritsar as the place where the deportees’ flights are to land,” Mann was quoted as saying.
“I am going to protest strongly against this move of the Union government. I have requested MEA and the MHA authorities to change the route of the US military plane and take it wherever they want, whether to Ahmedabad, Delhi or Hindon, as it will stop at three or four places for refuelling,” he added, while also mentioning that he would personally receive the deportees at the airport.
One hundred and twenty deportees are set to land in Amritsar today. Another 157 Indians will be deported in another plane on February 16.
The deportees are being called aliens, a legal term used by the US for foreign nationals.
Mann claimed that when Modi and Trump spoke on the morning of February 14, Indian time, US authorities were in the process of handcuffing and shackling the next batch of deportees. He expressed disbelief over the situation, asking if this was the foreign policy of the Indian government.
He criticised the explanation given by the Modi government for choosing Amritsar as the landing site, which was based on the fact that 67 of the 119 or 120 deportees were from Punjab. He questioned why the previous flight, which had deportees from Gujarat and Haryana, was not landed in Ahmedabad or Ambala.
He pointed out the irony that when Rafale jets land, they are directed to Ambala, but when deportees are involved, the flight has to land in Punjab.
Also Read: Second Fight Carrying Indian Deportees Set To Land In Punjab
