BJP to approach NHRC seeking rights for Hindu refugees

Bharatiya Janata Party will soon approach the National Human Rights Commission seeking constitutional protection for Hindu refugees from erstwhile East Pakistan and Bangladesh, party President Nitin Gadkari said on Sunday.

"Denial of citizenship to Hindu refugees is a violation of human rights. We'll file a petition with the National Human Rights Commission so that such victims of persecution who have fled to India can secure their rights as per rules of the Constitution", Gadkari told the media in Guwahati.

"As per the Constitution, any Hindu who is forced to flee any part of the world and comes to India on account of persecution has a right to Indian citizenship. That is a constitutional duty for us", he said.

Accusing successive Congress-led governments at the Centre and in Assam of committing injustice to Hindu refugees by denying them citizenship, he said, BJP Human Rights Cell

head Avinash Rai Khanna would soon visit Assam for doing ground work for the petition which was expected to be filed next month.

"The state BJP leadership has been directed to start a mass movement in Assam against the step-motherly treatment to Hindu refugees by the government", Gadkari said.

BJP has also appointed a legal committee to study the feasibility of approaching courts on violation of constitutional rights of Hindu refugees.

"BJP General Secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad will head the three-member committee. They will visit the North East besides Assam to prepare a legal case", he said.

"I'll also ask Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj and Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley to raise the matter in Parliament", Gadkari said.