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Union Home Minister Amit Shah delivered a strongly worded statement on issues of national security, religious organisations, and voter sanctity during the News18 Sabse Bada Dangal programme on Wednesday, setting a clear political agenda ahead of the crucial assembly elections in Bihar. Speaking with Network18 Group Editor-in-Chief Rahul Joshi regarding the status of organisations like the Popular Front of India (PFI), which was founded by followers of a particular religion, Shah outlined the government’s unambiguous stance. “Should an organisation like PFI be allowed to operate just because it was founded by followers of a particular religion? Our policy is clear: anyone working against the country or talking about breaking the country will be banned,” Shah asserted. He accused the opposition of politicising security actions. “Their politics is such that they measure actions taken for the country’s security in terms of Hindu or Muslim; this should not happen,” he said. This directly addresses the criticism faced by the government regarding the PFI ban, framing the decision purely as a matter of national interest and integrity, irrespective of religious affiliation. The Home Minister also intensified his party’s focus on the issue of illegal immigration, connecting it directly to the purity of the electoral process—a key point of contention during the ongoing Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in the state. Reiterating a firm constitutional principle, Shah stated in Hindi: “Desh may ghuspaithiyon ko matdan karne ka adhikar nahi hai” (Infiltrators do not have the right to vote in the country). He emphasised that the right to vote is reserved exclusively for the citizens of the country and that the presence of non-citizens on the voter list pollutes the spirit of India’s democracy. Shah’s remarks come as the ruling NDA campaigns in Bihar against what it terms the opposition’s policy of protecting infiltrators for vote bank politics. Observers say by raising the issues of the ban on PFI and the deportation policy for infiltrators—famously described by him as the “Detect, Delete, and Deport” strategy—Shah aims to consolidate the narrative of national security and zero-tolerance against anti-national activities as a central theme for the Bihar polls.
