Ram Madhav: Shah’s ‘termites’ comments out of context

Remarks by India's home affairs minister referring to illegal Muslim migrants as “termites”, were taken out of context, the BJP’s general secretary Ram Madhav has said.

The remarks by Amit Shah, also a member of the BJP, were made during the 2019 Indian election campaign and have been criticised in a report by the US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF).

But Mr Madhav told Hardtalk's Stephen Sackur: "We have quite a humanitarian sentiment about every person, but after all nations have to safeguard their people, their livelihoods and their economy from illegal infiltrators."

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