Isn’t checking infiltration your job, Assam party asks Amit Shah

GUWAHATI

Ahead of Home Minister Amit Shah’s scheduled visit to Barak Valley in southern Assam, a political party has urged him to publish a White Paper on how many “illegal infiltrators” were ejected from India since 2014.

In an open letter to Mr. Shah on Monday (February 16, 2026), the Barak Democratic Front (BDF) said it had been noting his repeated promises at public rallies to expel each infiltrator from Assam.

The BDF, which caters to Bengali nationalism in southern Assam comprising three districts, said the Border Security Force and other security personnel were employed to check infiltration along the country’s international borders.

“If illegal infiltration continues despite your efforts, is it not a failure or lapse on your part?” the BDF asked, pointing out that Mr. Shah, as the Home Minister, was the “supreme authority” bestowed with the task of checking illegal human infiltration as it threatens the security of the country.

“We are interested to know how many illegal infiltrators have been detected and expelled during the last 10 years of your party’s rule at the Centre and in Assam,” the party said, seeking a White Paper from Mr. Shah to prove that the government walks the talk.

The letter, signed by BDF’s chief convener Pradip Dutta Roy and five others, said taking the process of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) to a logical conclusion would automatically ensure the detection of illegal infiltrators in Assam.

About 19.06 lakh out of 3.3 crore applicants were excluded from the complete draft of the NRC published in August 2019. The exercise has since been in limbo, as the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wants the names on the list re-verified.

The BDF said reactivating the NRC process would resolve the long-standing issue of infiltrators for good, but it lamented that the BJP-led Centre and the State Government lacked interest in the NRC despite spending more than ₹1,600 crore on it.

Requesting Mr. Shah to complete the pending NRC in Assam, the BDF urged him to address any lapses along the border, complete the process of fencing the border and instal modern electronic surveillance systems to check infiltration. It pointed out that action, not mere rhetoric, was expected of him.

Referring to Mr. Shah’s scheduled visit, the BDF hoped it would help resolve issues relating to “underdevelopment and deprivation” in the landlocked region.