I Am A 'Termite', Says Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury In Lok Sabha When Cornered Over 'Infiltrator' Remark

A war of words broke out in Lok Sabha on Monday when Bharatiya Janata Party lawmakers tried to corner Congress leader Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury over his remarks that Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah were ‘infiltrators’. During the Question Hour, when the Congress MP rose to ask a supplementary related to the Steel Ministry, ruling alliance members tried to mock him by shouting the word ‘infiltrator’ several times.

The Congress leader immediately countered it by saying “Yes, I am an infiltrator, I am a ‘deemak’ (termite).  Modi is an infiltrator. Amit Shah is an infiltrator. Lal Krishna Advani is an infiltrator”.

To this, Union Petroleum and Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan shot back saying his ‘design would be exposed soon’.

“Sab khulengi, aap ki paribhasha se desh nahi chalega (Everything will be exposed. The country will not run by your definitions,” Pradhan said.

On Sunday, Chowdhury had termed PM Modi and Union Home Minister Shah as ‘infiltrators’ in Delhi. The Congress leader also said they are migrants since they have their homes in Gujarat but are now living in Delhi.

Earlier in November, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had made a big announcement in the Rajya Sabha saying that the NRC exercise will be implemented across India. He had reiterated, ‘no person of any religion should be worried regarding NRC.’ Shah also cleared up the confusion between the NRC and the Citizenship Bill.

So far, Assam is the only Indian state that has implemented the NRC. The Final NRC List with names of all 3.30 crore applicants in Assam was published online on September 14. NRC state coordinator Prateek Hajela had said that the final list, which was published on August 31, consisted only of supplementary lists and several queries were being received about the publication of overall results of all family members "irrespective of their involvement in the claims and objections process".