New Delhi/Chandigarh, 6 February 2025: The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and Congress have questioned why a US military aircraft carrying 104 deported Indian immigrants landed in Amritsar instead of Delhi, accusing the Centre of unfair treatment toward Punjab.
AAP’s Punjab chief and cabinet minister Aman Arora said the move raised concerns about the Centre’s approach toward the state. “Deportees were from across the country, with a majority from other states. Yet, the aircraft landed in Amritsar instead of the national capital. I am not objecting to their arrival, but the decision does raise valid questions,” Arora told reporters on Wednesday.
Congress MP Gurjeet Singh Aujla criticized the Centre for not opposing the deportation, calling it an “insult to our people and sovereignty.” In a post on X, he wrote, “Shameful & unacceptable! The Modi govt allowed Indian immigrants to be deported in shackles on a foreign military aircraft. Why no protest? Why not a commercial flight? Why didn’t the plane land in Delhi? The govt must answer.”
The US military plane landed at Shri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport in Amritsar at 1:55 pm on Wednesday. The deported immigrants included 33 each from Haryana and Gujarat, 30 from Punjab, three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh, and two from Chandigarh. Among those from Punjab, six were from Kapurthala, five from Amritsar, four each from Patiala and Jalandhar, two each from Hoshiarpur, Ludhiana, and SBS Nagar, and one each from Gurdaspur, Tarn Taran, Sangrur, SAS Nagar, and Fatehgarh Sahib.
This marks the first batch of Indian immigrants deported under the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration. The development comes days ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Washington for talks with then-US President Donald Trump.
