Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Friday that the government has resolved not only to stop infiltration but also identify every single illegal person “one by one” and push them out of the country. Delivering the K.F. Rustomji Lecture organised in memory of the founder and first Border Guard of BSF, HM Shah said the government would not allow any artificial alteration of demography and promised to hold a meeting with Chief Ministers of Tripura, Assam and West Bengal to strengthen the security grid in border states.
Calling the attempt to alter demography a “conspiracy”, HM Shah said, “The BSF has to foil this conspiracy. And today, I can declare that in Tripura, Assam and West Bengal there are governments which support the principle that there should be no infiltration.”
He said the BSF should not only guard the border but also build communication bridges with village patwari and police station, district collector and district superintendent of police to detect infiltrators, infiltration routes and cattle smuggling routes and plug them.”
“It is BSF’s responsibility to identify and stop these activities,” he said. The Home Minister said that very soon, a meeting of the Chief Ministers of these three border states will be convened in the Ministry to further strengthen the fight against infiltrators.
“The time has come that infiltration should also be put to an end,” he said, citing the successful example of the eradication of Maoism. “When we decided to eliminate Maoism, many officials warned us not to go ahead. But our brave jawans achieved the difficult task.
Similarly, I am confident our jawans will also eliminate infiltration from its roots,” he said, adding that a security problem needs to be struck at its roots rather than being ignored and allowed to exist for years. He said to check infiltration, the Union government has increased the BSF’s jurisdiction from 15 km up to 50 km from the border to arrest and conduct searches, and West Bengal has also started handing over land to the force for border fencing.
The event also featured the Border Security Force (BSF) Investiture Ceremony in which 43 BSF personnel were given awards. On an earlier occasion, HM Shah had said that the journey of the BSF from 1965 to 2025 demonstrates how an organisation that began with limited resources in challenging circumstances has emerged as the world's largest and most prestigious border security force.
He said that BSF is the finest example of how patriotism can overcome all difficulties to achieve global excellence. He had highlighted that the patriotism and dedication shown by BSF personnel in adverse conditions be it temperatures above 45 degrees or extremely low, dense jungles, rugged mountains, or coastal areas have earned the BSF the honour of being the first line of defence.
HM Shah added that a decision was made in the country to assign one force to secure each border, and based on the BSF's capability, it was entrusted with the responsibility of securing two of the most challenging borders, Bangladesh and Pakistan.