Tarun Gogoi said the centre was trying to save face in the midst of nationwide protests.

Highlights Former Assam Chief Minister said religion shouldn't be a part of process

AB Vajpayee asked states to build detention centres, Tarun Gogoi added

PM Modi was denying their existence to save face amid protests, he said

Former Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi's claim that the country has no detention camps, saying that states were asked to set up such facilities to house illegal immigrants way back in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee era.

"It was the Vajpayee government that first came up with the idea of constructing detention camps to accommodate foreigners who have completed the jail term for illegal entry into India. After Modi came to power, he gave Rs 46 crore to construct the country's biggest detention centre with a capacity of 3,000 people. How can he now say that there are no detention centres?" he asked.

Mr Gogoi headed the Congress government in Assam for three consecutive terms from 2001 to 2016.

The former Chief Minister said that his administration had constructed the detention centres, sorely needed to house "declared foreigners", on the Gauhati High Court's orders. The Modi government was denying it as part of a face-saving effort, he added.

"When Modi became the Prime Minister in 2014, he did not seriously discuss the issue of detention centres and illegal migrants with the states. His government did not take up the matter with Bangladesh either, and now Modi wants to give the impression that we are still a liberal country. That we don't detain," he said.

He said religion should not factor in the process of identifying illegal migrants or detaining them. "The reality is that there are more Hindus in detention camps than Muslims. So who is detaining these Hindus? It's the BJP," the former Chief Minister said, adding that there was "no distinction" between Hindus and Muslims during his rule.

However, the former Chief Minister said that the rules governing detention centres should be less stringent. "The Supreme Court has now given an order to release detainees after three years, so there is a mechanism in place," he added.

In the face of rising protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act, PM Modi had denied the existence of detention camps in India and a proposed plan to implement a nationwide National Register of Citizens at a rally in Delhi's Ramlila Maidan last Sunday. He was widely criticised by the opposition, which accused him of contradicting comments made by Home Minister Amit Shah and other leaders in his government.

The Citizenship Amendment Act, for the first time, makes religion the test of citizenship in India. The government says it will help minorities from three Muslim-dominated countries get citizenship if they fled to India before 2015 because of religious persecution. Critics say it is designed to discriminate against Muslims and violates the secular principles of the constitution.