'Why Did US Flight Not Land In Ahmedabad?'

'The flight did not land in Gujarat because the 'Gujarat model' would then get exposed.'

A United States C-17 military plane carrying illegal migrants from India landed in Amritsar on Wednesday, February 5, 2025, afternoon. And set off a controversy.

The flight had 104 illegal migrants to the US who were deported as part of President Donald J Trump's avowed policy to send back illegal migrants to their countries.

The illegal migrants sent back to India are from Gujarat, Haryana, Maharashtra, Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Pargat Singh, the Congress MLA from Jalandhar Cantonment, asked why Amritsar was chosen as the destination for the US military flight.

"It is a ploy to defame Punjab," Pargat Singh, who played hockey for India before switching to politics, tells Syed Firdaus Ashraf/Rediff.com.

"When the maximum number of illegal migrants were from Haryana and Gujarat, there was no need for the US aircraft to land in Punjab."

What is your objection to the flight landing in Amritsar?

These people are illegal migrants and not criminals. And the government, by allowing the flight of these illegal migrants to land in Amritsar, is trying to project that these illegal Indian migrants are from the Punjabi-Sikh community only.

This is not true.

The government is trying to create a fake narrative to defame the Punjabi community.

Do you actually believe the central government chose Punjab to defame the state!

Yes, definitely they wanted to defame Punjab. Why did the US flight not land in Ahmedabad? Why did it not land in Delhi? Why did it not land in Chandigarh?

Is it not the rule that international flights with illegal migrants on board must land at the nearest border airport, and that happened to be Amritsar?

The path of this flight was from Gujarat. The US C-17 flight entered India over Gujarat, passed over Ahmedabad, Delhi, Chandigarh and then landed in Amritsar.

Therefore, I expressed my opinion that the narrative the central government was trying to build is that all the illegal immigrants from India were from Punjab.

The flight did not land in Gujarat because the 'Gujarat model' would then get exposed.

Do international flights land in Amritsar?

We make a lot of noise about it as we want many international flights to land in Amritsar, but this does not happen.

If this happens, then the people of Punjab will have to travel 300-400 km less as they would not need to travel to Delhi to catch international flights.

They never gave the maximum international flights to Punjab for the benefit of Punjabis but now they are ready to land a US military aircraft in Punjab.

They could have landed this flight in Chandigarh. It is the capital city of Haryana and Punjab. Why then did they want this flight to land only in Amritsar?

How many of the illegal migrants are from Punjab?

Punjab is third on the list.

I don't deny there are illegal immigrants from Punjab but the topmost illegal immigrants (on the flight) are from Haryana and Gujarat (both states are ruled by the BJP). They have 33 illegal immigrants each and Punjab has 30 illegal immigrants (there are three each from Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh). Sadly, our chief minister, Bhagwant Mann, has not even uttered a word on this issue.

Did you meet any of these illegal immigrants? There are reports that they were handcuffed and shackled. Is it true?

No, I did not see any such thing.

I only feel these illegal Indian immigrants should have been deported by a civilian plane and not a military plane.

Colombia sent their own plane to bring back their illegal immigrants, so why could India not send their own plane?

Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have done something like this.

These migrants who are being deported ran away from our country because there are no job opportunities in our country.

You;ve got to look this issue from the human angle too.

What do you mean 'human angle'?

They are not criminals but Indian citizens. They must be given dignity.

As a country, our people being sent in a US army plane means they are not giving dignity to our people.

When Colombia can send flights to bring back its people, why not India? It sends a wrong message.

In what way?

On one hand this government is beating its chest about the Indian passport becoming one of the most valued in the world and here our people are being deported in a US military plane that the world is watching.

Even today, a lot of people are giving up on Indian citizenship.

Why do people migrate illegally?

They take a risk. The landholding in rural Punjab is reducing. The basic occupation is agriculture and due to increase in the size of family members the landholding per person is reducing, which is not sufficient to meet the needs.

Many are in debt and in this situation some people they know who are settled abroad legally call them over so they do go illegally for better life prospects.

Why not migrate to cities like Delhi or Mumbai?

Migration goes on across the world. A person settled in England might want to migrate to New Zealand and a person settled in New Zealand may want to migrate to Australia. Wherever people feel there are better opportunities in life they will move out.

But yes, migration should not happen illegally. They go by the dunki route which is not very easy to take.