"Should Infiltrators Have Voting Rights?" Amit Shah At NDTV Bihar Conclave

Union Home Minister Amit Shah today said that Bihar is one of the most politically aware states in the country, ahead of assembly elections in the state this month. Speaking at NDTV's Bihar Power Play conclave, the Home Minister asserted that the Bihar poll results will be favourable towards the NDA. 

Here are the top quotes from Home Minister Ami Shah: 

1. Every party has been campaigning from the booth level to Patna even before the poll dates were announced. 
2.  In the last 20 years, the work to lay the foundation stone of progress in Bihar has been done.
3. You can ask any youth, and they would say that the law and order situation has improved in the state under the Nitish regime, and that has been the foundation of progress.
4.  Today, there are four bridges on the Ganga; ten more are in the works. No one had imagined that this could ever happen. In the past regime, the discussions were about robbery, murder and loot and today the discussion is about progress.
5. Speaking on the Mokana murder case, the Home Minister said, "What happened isn't right. But do the killers get political protection anymore, like they used to get earlier? They don't get protection and which is why the law and order situation has improved."
6. Employment can be created in multiple ways. Employment is different from jobs. Tejashwi Yadav has said they will give over 2 crore jobs. And Bihar's budget will not be able to accommodate it. It will have to be four times its current budget to accommodate that promise.
7. If we need to reduce migration, we will have to create the opportunity of self-employment in Bihar itself. 
8. Nitish Kumar is addressing five rallies every day. I have clarified this 50 times -- we are fighting under Nitish Kumar's leadership. He is the Chief Minister; we are fighting under his leadership. As far as the Chief Minister's face is concerned. There is a constitutional process for that; it will be decided after the polls.
9. We will win 160 seats in Bihar. The rest of the parties will get the remaining seats.
10. Every poll has its own dynamic. No poll is easy. We have to tell the people what we did in the last five years and what we will do in the next five. We take every poll seriously. 
11. It is the BJP's policy that we work with our alliance partners. It doesn't matter what our strength is.
12. I urge people of Bihar to vote carefully, as if Mahagathbandhan returns, so will jungle raaj.
13. Naxalism's backbone has been broken now. There is a rehabilitation centre for those who have surrendered. There are skill development programmes for them. And for the top Naxals, we have a surveillance programme.

14. The issue of illegal immigration is a security issue for us.  I want to ask the people of Bihar, should the names of illegal immigrants be in the voter list? The opposition thinks of illegal immigrants as their vote bank, and my stand is that their names should be deleted from the voter list of the entire country. So they will be detected, deleted from the list and then deported.

15. Our country is not a dharamshala. The right to cast a vote is only for citizens.

16. On the recent 'Gen Z protests in Nepal, the Home Minister said, "This is not Nepal. The roots of democracy are strong here." 

17. Self-employment is the answer to this (migration). We have a blueprint for this. Before 2015, I saw many shops which said 'mobile charge karne ki dukaan' because there was no power connection. Today, there are no shops like that. The poor are getting free homes, there are toilets, and we are giving gas connections. We have laid the foundation stone, now we will implement the skill development programme for self-employment.

18. Every party wants to expand itself. But the governments are made of alliances.

19. We have been fighting a war against drugs for the last four years. We have a system in place for that. In the last three years, we have been breaking our own records in terms of seizures and arrests.

20. There have been blue and red corner notices against financial offenders. For the last two years, we managed to bring 42 such offenders. There are many fugitives who are undergoing trials in the countries they fled to.

21. The Congress has been trying for the last 11 years. But I trust the people of the country. Rahul Gandhi doesn't debate on these issues in Parliament; he walks out, he talks about issues on the streets, but not in the courts. When he gets the time to speak in Parliament, he is abroad. Then he comes back and says he wants to speak. But that's not how it works.

22. The Congress is in denial mode. When they win, they take an oath without questioning the Election Commission. When they lose, they claim there was cheating

23. Indira Gandhi also tried to influence the democratic process during the Emergency. After that, the EC has strengthened the whole process.