This organised rhetoric, amplified at political rallies and religious gatherings, lays the ideological groundwork for the Union’s policy of nationwide profiling, detention, and covert deportations of suspected foreign nationals. The present escalation was triggered in April 2025 by Operation Sindoor, a military operation targeting cross-border terror camps, which catalysed a wave of jingoism and a new national purpose in spotting, detaining, and deporting illegal immigrants. This has led to a coordinated drive where more than 1,500 people were “pushed out” into Bangladesh in five weeks between May – July 2025. The scale and manner of these deportations – the absence of formal orders, access to legal aid, or verification by Foreigners Tribunals – reveal a disturbing trend of expulsions without due process.

The result has been a targeted attack on largely poor migrant workers from West Bengal who moved to cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, and Ahmedabad in search of jobs. Those working in the unorganised sector, such as domestic workers, vegetable vendors, and rickshaw pullers, are frequently targeted by individuals and groups affiliated with the Hindu far-right. Families say that men and women are being picked up in sudden raids, transported to Assam, and coerced across unguarded sections of the border by the Border Security Force (BSF). From lawful citizens vanishing in midnight raids to migrant workers being harassed, humiliated, and forcefully evicted, the pattern of systemic persecution demonstrates a calculated effort to terrorise Bengali-speaking Muslims working in different parts of the country under the pretext of them being Bangladeshi infiltrators.

This report tracks the incidents of hate speech during August – September 2025. The data shows a systemic, ideologically-driven campaign that leverages historic tensions and is enabled by state complicity. With elections approaching, this orchestrated fear-mongering reflects a calculated political strategy to stigmatize minorities, displacing democracy with majoritarianism. The rhetoric and tropes, from Gazwa-e-Hind to Love Jihad, are strategically deployed to create a climate of conspiratorial fear. The propaganda is designed to foster a public imagination in which the targeted community has no place in ‘Bharat,’ the Hindu Rashtra.

The Multiplier Effect: How Propaganda Works to Manufacture Consent

The sequence of raids and deportations targeting Bengali Muslim migrant workers is sustained by organised propaganda. The BJP’s campaign during the 2024 Lok Sabha elections is a crucial case study to understand how the ‘infiltrator’ rhetoric, initially used to popularize an electoral agenda, was given fire by the highest political figures. Even prior to 2024, in fact playback to 2014 and even before, the right wing party’s persistent rhetoric of “orchestrated demographic change” through “illegal immigration (the term ghuspetiya is the most weaponised adjective of the same) has been carefully used at election time, to fuel insecurities and cause voter division.

On April 21, 2024, Modi delivered one of his most inflammatory speeches at Banswara, Rajasthan, invoking the “infiltrator” bogey as a dog whistle against Muslim citizens. The speech remains publicly available on his YouTube and Facebook pages, where it has garnered over one million views.

“When they (the opposition) were in power, they said that Muslims had the first right to the properties of the state. This means that they would collect these properties and give them to the ones who have more kids (insinuating Muslims). They will give it to the ghuspaithiye (infiltrators). Do you want to give away your hard-earned money to the intruders? These urban naxals will not even spare the mothers and sisters or their mangal sutra. They will go that far.”

– Narendra Modi, Speech at Banswara

Modi continued to replicate similar hate speeches across India during the election campaign, delivering 63 hate speeches between April 21 and May 30.^[1]

This was followed up by Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath. In a May 21, 2024 speech in Shravasti, he declared, “After conducting an X-ray of your wealth, they will distribute it to infiltrators—Bangladeshi infiltrators, Pakistani infiltrators, or any other Muslim infiltrators.”

 National leaders such as Narendra Modi and Amit Shah, along with powerful regional figures like Yogi Adityanath and Nitish Rane, seed this rhetoric from the top. This is seamlessly woven into campaign strategies and state addresses. Their authoritarian stature lends immediate credibility to the narrative, with every local election speech reaching nationwide audiences.

Once their signal words are introduced into political discourse, the rhetoric spirals outward. “Infiltrators” soon became common parlance among Hindu far-right and mainstream Indian media.

Concentrated ownership of mainstream media makes it a hyper-competitive market where survival depends on government approval. Furthering outrage and violence through disinformation makes the business of the media (both mainstream and digital) profitable. The ‘marketplace of ideas’ is a contest to see which channel can amplify hate and hysteria the loudest.

Leading the amplification is Sudarshan News’ Suresh Chavhanke, whose ‘Janata NRC’ campaign advocates for a vigilante-style “citizen-led” version of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), encouraging ordinary people to identify and expose “Bangladeshi infiltrators” or “illegal Muslims” in their neighbourhoods. CJP has filed 3 MCC violation complaints with CEO Maharashtra against Suresh Chavhanke in 2024.

Digital media is the most potent element of the propaganda flow. It allows hate speeches, often delivered at in-person mass gatherings like political rallies, religious parades, marches, and demonstrations, to transcend physical boundaries and amplify their reach far beyond their immediate audiences. Live streams are particularly crucial for hate actors, as they allow them to circumvent content moderation rules on hate speech and amplify their messages in real-time. Hindutva influencers like Kajal Hindustani and self-proclaimed monks like Mahant Raju Das frequently use Facebook Live to broadcast hate speech. This is then strategically clipped and reposted across platforms for maximum reach – from a full-length YouTube video to a 30-second Instagram reel. Tailored clips find a crucial delivery mechanism in private, tightly networked, and unmoderated WhatsApp channels (of which the BJP alone operates an estimated 50 lakh), which are ideal for closed-group persuasion, rapid peer endorsement, and sustaining echo chambers.

At the local level, amplified hate is converted into tangible action, mobilisation, and policy execution by BJP leaders, Hindu far-right organizations, and religious figures. The signal words penetrate hate speeches, communal rallies, and public interest litigations, justifying calls for violence, economic boycotts, and vigilante evictions. India Hate Lab reports that in 2024, 22% of hate speeches invoking the “Bangladeshi infiltrator” bogey included direct calls for violence.

Since the rhetoric has come all the way from the top, these ground groups are effectively granted impunity, operating with tacit state sanction that discourages police to file FIRs or pursue accountability.

The interplay between top-down and bottom-up hate speech flows saturates political discourse with narratives that vilify and threaten Muslims, effectively crowding out space for meaningful democratic debate.

Weaponising Historic Tensions: the Miya Kheda Andolon in Assam

The border state of Assam provides crucial historical context for the nationwide crackdown on Bengali-origin Muslims. For decades, fears about demographic change, purportedly caused by Muslim migration from Bangladesh, have been mobilised by the Hindu far-right to shape politics and policy in the state. These anxieties eventually led to the creation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a controversial mechanism aimed at identifying undocumented immigrants. The NRC was designed to “recognise and expel illegal immigrants” by determining “who was born in Assam and is therefore Indian, and who might be a migrant from neighbouring Bangladesh.” However, during its 2019 implementation, 1.9 million people, including several thousand Hindus, were excluded from the register. Muslims left out of the NRC faced disproportionately severe consequences, including detention in government-run facilities and harsh living conditions.

Since early June, Assam has witnessed a sharp escalation in hate speech, targeted harassment, violence, and state-led evictions against Bengali-origin Muslims, under the campaign to remove “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.” Between July 9 and July 30, India Hate Lab (IHL) documented 18 rallies and protests across 14 districts, and nine cases of targeted violence and harassment.^[2]

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been a powerful and consistent propagator of hateful rhetoric. Sarma has repeatedly referred to the evicted families as “illegal Bangladeshis” in several posts on X, asserted that the government will continue with its anti-encroachment drives to protect the ‘jati,’ and given a public appeal that people not provide shelter to those evicted.

On May 15, 2025, speaking at a rally in Giridih, Jharkhand, Sarma framed Muslim “infiltration” as an existential threat, claiming “Infiltrators are entering Jharkhand and are forcefully marrying Adivasi women [referencing the ‘original inhabitants’ of India]. These Muslim infiltrators are again becoming citizens and are grabbing lands in Jharkhand…. They came in thousands, then in lakhs, and now they are in crores. Today, we (Hindus) have to fight daily for our existence.”

On May 28, 2025, speaking at a press briefing, Sarma announced a new scheme to issue arms licenses to indigenous residents of “vulnerable and remote areas,” particularly those living along the Bangladesh border. He specifically named five districts with significant Muslim populations as the initial focus areas, stating that the initiative was intended to “tackle unlawful threats from hostile quarters.”

On June 9, 2025, Sarma claimed that “newly arrived” Muslims have weaponized the consumption of beef and the call to prayer as tactics to drive out local Hindus.

On July 21, 2025, at a state event in Darrang, he referred to Bengali-origin Muslims as “suspected Bangladeshis,” dismissed slogans of communal harmony as naive, and claimed that reclaimed land from Muslims was being put to better use.

On July 24, 2025, responding to a question about whether this situation might turn violent, Sarma replied that he wanted the “situation in Assam to be explosive,” adding that Assamese people could only survive if armed.

On August 2, at an election rally in Udalguri, Sarma said there was no need to ask for documents from those he referred to as “our people.” He claimed that documents should be demanded from people who were recently evicted and alleged that people from Bangladesh were entering Assam daily. He urged the public to recognise who the real enemies of Assam are.

This rhetoric was repeated by the local ethno nationalist organization, Bir Lachit Sena, whose chief Shrinkhal Chaliha stated that his group would carry out evictions themselves if the police failed to act. In the Sivasagar district, the Sena along with at least six other organisations have been conducting house-to-house searches to verify the documents of people working as labourers and staying on rent, with the object of forcing people of “suspect nationality” to “go back to where they came from.

On July 25, Bir Lachit Sena protested against illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators in Kaliabor. Members stopped vehicles on roads and questioned them, leading to a chaotic situation eventually requiring police intervention.

On August 10, a maktab in Tinsukia district was demolished. Shahin Alam, a teacher at the maktab, was harassed to show his Aadhaar card and threatened by a group of people saying, “Toi iyar pora jaboi lagibo” (You must leave this place). A recording of the demolition shows a group of youth chanting slogans such as “Jai Aai Axom” (Hail mother Assam) and “Bir Lachit Sena Zindabad.”

Veer Lachit Sena, All Tai Ahom Students’ Union, Hindu Suraksha Sena, and AHP-Rashtriya Bajrang Dal have been undertaking similar harassment and vigilante eviction drives.

On September 5, Veer Lachit Sena staged a protest at the Police station in Dhemaji over allegations that Bengali-origin Muslim men assaulted an Assamese rickshaw driver, raising slogans targeting the community like “Bangladeshi Miya go back,” “Remove Miyas, save Dhemaji,” and “Miya hooliganism won’t be allowed.”

On September 2, at a meeting of AHP-Rashtriya Bajrang Dal-Rashtriya Mahila Parishad in Bongaigaon, leader Debajit targeted Muslims, alleging that over a thousand villages had been taken over by “Bangladeshis.” He claimed that places with names like Islampur were being established across the district and called it a conspiracy to turn India into an “Islamic State” by buying land at high prices to prevent Hindus from purchasing it.

On August 31, at an AHP-Rashtriya Bajrang Dal meeting in Rangia, Kamrup, state president Dinesh Kalita targeted Muslims, alleging that wherever their population increases, Hindus are attacked and women assaulted and killed. He promoted the conspiracy theory of “love jihad”, claiming those involved in the district are RSS-Rashtriya Muslim Manch leaders. He called for strengthening their organisation to stop the “intimidation of Bangladeshi-Miyas” and kill those who shelter them in villages.

On August 28, Hindu Suraksha Sena staged a protest in Barpeta, chanting slogans such as “Bangladeshi Miya be warned,” “Islamic expansion won’t be allowed in Assam,” and demanding that those they deemed traitors of the country be shot. They also burned effigies of Mahmood Madani and Syeda Hamid for opposing the recent eviction drives targeting Bengali-origin Muslims.

On August 8, NewsNow circulated a video showing vigilantes in Tinsukia district demanding NRC documents from a woman.

On August 5, following the direction of the president Milan Buragohain, the union intercepted 16 “Miyas” near a bus stand in Tinsukia town. These persons were on their way to Arunachal Pradesh to work as masons and construction labourers, but were made to return home to western Assam’s Barpeta, Dhubri, and South Salmara-Mankachar districts. The union also said it issued a month’s notice to some 50 families of “illegal immigrants” to leave an area near the district’s coal-rich Margherita town.

The Miya Muslims of Assam live predominantly in the flood-prone Char Chapori (river islands and embankments) areas, where thousands have lost their land to river erosion. Many landless families have resettled on government land or migrated to different cities and other districts within Assam in search of livelihoods.^[3] The term “Miya” is now used pejoratively and often as a slur against Bengali Muslims, who are accused of “weaponising” beef consumption, polluting Hindu areas, and threatening Assamese identity. The eviction drives in Assam have disproportionately affected Miya Muslims, many of whom have lived there for decades. Assam news channels have published videos showing vigilante groups going door to door in Upper Assam, threatening Miya Muslims to leave within 24 to 48 hours.

On August 8, a public meeting in Sivasagar district called for homeowners to check tenants’ documents before renting out properties, in a bid to keep Upper Assam “free from illegal Bangladeshis.” An attendee told a reporter from the Wire that Miya migrant workers from Lower Assam resemble “Bangladeshi people” – because they wear lungis and tupis (skull caps) – sparking “anxiety” among “indigenous communities”, as people cannot identify who is a ‘Miya’ and who is a Bangladeshi.

Also on August 8, indigenous Assamese Muslim woman Wazida Begum stirred controversy with her strong statements distancing ‘Assamese Muslims’ from ‘Miya Muslims’ amid an ongoing eviction drive in Upper Assam. “A section of Assamese Muslims in Upper Assam have provided shelter to Miya Muslims and even entered into marital relations with them. This is extremely alarming.” She further warned that cultural assimilation through intermarriage could threaten indigenous identity by stating, “Marriage with Miya Muslims must be barred. We are Assamese by birth and we must live and die in Assam.” Wazida added, “One mistake by a local marrying a Miya girl has jeopardized the entire Sonari town today. In another remark she said, “When indigenous communities begin marrying Miya Muslims, it legitimizes their stay. We must not allow such marriages or give them shelter.”

On August 3, Situ Barua, a member of the Jatiya Sangrami Sena, is seen warning a man from Hojai district: “Shut up, you Miya… Miyas have to vacate Upper Assam within 24 hours.”

Assam is scheduled to go to polls in 2026, making the ‘Miya Kheda Andolon’ (movement to drive away the Miyas) a timely electoral tool. By stoking xenophobic anxieties and communal fear, the campaign diverts public attention from pressing governance failures and corruption scandals, such as the ‘Gir Cow Scam’ – a controversy involving allegations of corruption, mismanagement, and favouritism in a government-backed dairy initiative under the Gorukhuti Bahumukhi Krishi Prakalpa (GBKP), which implicates BJP ministers and has sparked protests across the state. The political opportunism of the xenophonic narrative serves not just to exclude a minority, but to shield the political elite from accountability.

Political Opportunism and the Consolidation of the Majoritarian Vote in Bihar

In Bihar, the political campaign against Bengali-origin Muslims has been weaponized to secure electoral gains ahead of the assembly elections. This has been synchronised with a state-level administrative exercise – the Special Intensive Revision (SIR). This exercise by the Election Commission began on June 25, tasking booth-level officers tasked with collecting enumeration forms from 7.89 crore voters in the state within 31 days. While the opposition is demanding a rollback, the BJP has framed the process as necessary to “purge” foreign nationals from the voter list.

On July 22, BJP leader and Deputy CM Samrat Choudhary accused RJD chief Lalu Prasad and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee of being ‘anti-national’ for opposing the SIR, claiming, “for vote bank politics, they want to keep lakhs of infiltrators in the voter list and are opposing the ongoing SIR of the electoral rolls in Bihar.”

On July 23, Hindutva channel Sudarshan News repeated the claim that the opposition is rattled because their vote bank “thrives on fake identities and infiltrators.”

On July 25, BJP MP Jagannath Sarkar alleged that “Rohingya Muslims from Bangladesh have learned Bengali and changed their names to obtain Aadhaar and voter cards” in India.

This political leveraging of the SIR to attack the opposition and reinforce the ‘infiltrator’ narrative has also spread to neighbouring states. West Bengal is a key ideological battleground, where Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has publicly accused BJP-ruled states of using deportations to harass Bengali-speaking Indians.

On July 25, West Bengal BJP President Samik Bhattacharya called for the implementation of the SIR, warning that failing to do so could result in the state becoming “West Bangladesh.”

On July 31, BJP leader and the Leader of Opposition in the West Bengal Assembly, Suvendu Adhikari, vowed that not a single Rohingya or Bangladeshi intruder would stay in Bengal if BJP comes to power. “First, these Rohingyas and Bangladeshi Muslim intruders should be deleted from the voter list. Then they should be expelled from the country, the way the Haryana government and other governments are doing. Not a single Bangladeshi Muslim intruder or Rohingya will stay here. This is our commitment,” he said

The much-publicised draft of electoral rolls was released by the Election Commission on August 1, after the first phase of the SIR was completed. Contrary to the widespread claims, not a single voter’s name was deleted on the ground of alleged infiltrators from Bangladesh, Nepal, or Myanmar. However, the propaganda continued unabated.

On August 2, Union Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh dismissed claims of harassment of Bengali-speaking migrants in BJP-ruled states. He reasserted that the verification process is also part of efforts to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators who may be living illegally in India using fake documents such as Aadhaar cards.

On August 8, Union Home Minister Amit Shah backed the Bihar SIR, declaring “Names of infiltrators must be removed from the voters’ lists. They have no right to vote.” He further attacked the opposition, saying “Lalu Prasad, Tejashwi Prasad and Rahul Gandhi should answer who they want to save — those from Bangladesh who devour jobs of the people of Bihar? Bihar people will never accept infiltrators who Rahul Gandhi and Tejashwi want to use as vote bank.”

On August 24, BJP national secretary and IT cell head Amit Malviya said that Aadhar card cannot be used as a valid document for citizenship. “The truth is simple: SIR is intact, Aadhaar alone cannot get you enrolled; dead, fake, Bangladeshi and Rohingya names will be removed and only Indian citizens will elect the next government – not foreigners,” he said.

On August 25, Union Minister and BJP MP Giriraj Singh, speaking at an NDA alliance meeting in Purnia, referred to alleged Bangladeshi immigrants as “demons,” asked attendees if they should be killed, and urged them to buy only from Hindu vendors, eat only jhatka meat, and avoid halal.” Singh denounced statements by a former-UPA official alleging that they “aimed at carrying out a Ghazwa-e-Hind.”

On September 15, speaking at an election rally in Purnia, Modi launched a sharp attack on Congress and RJD, accusing them of supporting illegal infiltrators for vote-bank politics. “Congress and RJD have not only threatened the honour of Bihar but also the identity of Bihar,” he said. “Today, a huge demographic crisis has arisen due to infiltrators in Seemanchal and Eastern India. People of Bihar, Bengal, Assam and many states are worried about the safety of their sisters and daughters. That is why I have announced the Demography Mission from the Red Fort.”

On September 16, BJP national spokesperson Rohan Gupta supported the Prime Minister’s stance, repeating that infiltrators are a “serious threat to national security.” Speaking at Ahmedabad, Gupta claimed, “Aadhaar card registration in Seemanchal has reached 108 percent and even 110 percent. This means there are more Aadhaar cards than people. This is a warning signal. This is not just data manipulation, but a direct threat to our internal security.” Gupta said that infiltrators weaken the demographic structure, strain resources, and create law and order problems.

On September 18, Amit Shah asserted that SIR) would remove “impurities” from voters’ list in Bihar. Speaking at back-to-back workers’ conclaves at Dehri-on-Sone and Begusarai, which were attended by party activists from 20 of the state’s 38 districts, Shah called upon party workers to “visit every house in the state and spread the message that all districts of Bihar will be left teeming with infiltrators from Bangladesh if they (Congress, RJD and Left combine) came to power, even by fluke.”

Also on September 18, Giriraj Singh alleged that mosques in Bihar are sheltering infiltrators from Bangladesh to boost the Muslim vote-bank. Speaking in Patna, he claimed that around 25 lakh votes were removed in Begusarai and accused RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav and Congress MP Rahul Gandhi of protecting infiltrators through their yatras. Giriraj Singh compared the situation to Bengal, saying Hindus have become a minority in many districts.

The chief target of the SIR campaign has been the Seemanchal belt in northeast Bihar. This region, flanked by Nepal and West Bengal, comprises the four districts of Purnia, Katihar, Araria, and Kishanganj, where the Muslim population is far higher than the rest of the state. Various ‘sources’ in the Election Commission have claimed that the real aim of this voter-list revision is to flush out Bangladeshi infiltrators in Seemanchal.^[4]

After the first phase of the revision, not a single ‘infiltrator’ was identified in Seemchal. However, the exercise did strike off a total of 65 lakh voters, with 7.6 lakh from Seemchal, on other grounds. The majority are workers from Patna, East Champaran and Madhubani. This data strongly suggests that the SIR is not a purge of infiltrators, but a calculated political ploy that disproportionately targets migrant labourers—many of them Bengali-speaking Muslims—who are away from home and unable to verify their enrolment.

The entire operation, from political mudslinging by Modi and Shah, to hate speeches by Giriraj Singh, to the Election Commission’s SIR, serve a cohesive political and ideological purpose. By relentlessly branding Muslims as “infiltrators” and creating a “demographic crisis” bogeyman, the campaign simultaneously attempts to suppress the minority vote while galvanizing the majority Hindu vote. This consolidation is essential in the Hindu Rashtra framework, the administrative process of voter deletion is transformed into a performative act of “purifying” the nation, cementing the idea that the only legitimate citizen is one who fits the dominant religious and cultural identity.

Propaganda Tropes and their Ideological Underpinnings

The ‘Bangladeshi infiltrator’ bogeyman and the hateful rhetoric that accompanies it is not haphazard, but a meticulously constructed architecture of exclusion that serves political, patriarchal, and ideological goals.

Hindutva is a political project of nation-building which conceptualises Bharat as the land of the Hindus, and a Hindu as one for whom Hindustan is not only a Pitribhu (Fatherland) but also a Punyabhu (Holyland). Followers of Islam and Christianity, whose holy sites lie outside India, are perpetual ideological outsiders – infiltrators. This ideological denial of a community’s sacred belonging is then translated into a territorial mandate. By delegitimising their citizenship, the propaganda cements Muslims as an internal enemy whose very presence undermines the nation’s integrity. The call to expel “ghuspaithiye” is thus presented as a necessary act of national purification.

On Independence Day, members of Antarashtriya Hindu Parishad and Rashtriya Bajrang Dal held a slogan march in Balrampur, Uttar Pradesh, demanding an “Akhand Bharat” and calling to drive out “Bangladeshi ghuspaithiya” (infiltrators). A few days before, on August 11, AHP-Rashtriya Bajrang Dal members held a procession in Haldwani, Uttarakhand, chanting slogans demanding the eviction of those they alleged to be Bangladeshi ghuspaithiya (infiltrators).

As we can already see, the ideological architecture is built upon specific, repeated propaganda tropes.

Trope 1: Demographic Supremacy: “Population Jihad” and the Great Replacement Bogey

This trope is designed to create a manufactured sense of existential threat and economic scarcity among the Hindu majority. For years, Hindu nationalists have mobilized anti-Muslim sentiments around an imagined threat of “population jihad,” which rooted in the unsubstantiated claim that Muslims will take over India’s population by intentionally producing more children than Hindus. This argument about demographic change is now being made by invoking the “Bangladeshi infiltrator” bogey.

On August 22, AHP–Rashtriya Bajrang Dal staged a protest in Garoth, Mandsaur, Madhya Pradesh and submitted a memorandum to the SDM, targeting Muslims, fear-mongering over their population, and demanding population control laws and action against alleged Bangladeshi and Rohingya “ghuspaiths” (infiltrators).

On July 31, AHP-Rashtriya Bajrang Dal staged a protest in Aonla, Bareilly, Uttar Pradesh, demanding a population control law, alleging that the country’s population growth is driven by the infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims. They called for the eviction of those they termed as infiltrators and urged measures to curb the Muslim population.

The ‘infiltrator’ narrative, therefore, feeds on and reinforces a fear of demographic change in India based on bogus claims of “explosive population growth” among Muslims, which will lead to Muslim domination and the eradication of Hindus. The coordinated demand for discriminatory population control laws translates abstract demographic anxiety into concrete political policy.

This demographic fear is immediately weaponized by political leaders to invoke economic scarcity, recasting systemic socio-economic failures as the direct fault of the minority community.

On August 25, at a Varaha Jayanti celebration organised by Vishwa Hindu Kranti Sanghatan in Navi Mumbai, BJP MLA Nitesh Rane fearmongered about alleged Rohingya and Bangladeshi “infiltrators” taking jobs and casting votes to make non-Hindu candidates win. He spread anti-Muslim conspiracy theories of “love jihad” and “land jihad”, declaring, “We are not goltopis or dadiwallas; we are Hindus!”

Hindu far-right leaders like Nitish Rane frequently demonized Indian Muslims as parasitic and thieving, alleging that they were either wrongfully granted resources that rightfully belonged to Hindus or were stealing Hindu wealth through acts of aggression. This narrative manufactures an artificial fear of resource scarcity amongst the local population, creating fear and panic among marginalized groups that are the most reliant on social services (e.g., subsidized ration, public healthcare) and most prone to unemployment. The lie that “infiltrators” are illegally obtaining identification documents and claiming indigenous land makes the constitutional rights of Indian Muslims seem like an act of aggression against the majority.

Trope 2: “Love Jihad” and Conversion Hysteria

“Love Jihad” is a fear manifested from Brahmanical Patriarchy. The trope defines Hindu women as naive, unintelligent, or brainwashed, justifying the constant surveillance and control of their bodies and choices by Hindu men. Simultaneously, it portrays the Muslim man as inherently lustful and predatory, whose interest in a Hindu woman is never based on consent or genuine affection, but is part of a wider, organized, terrorist plot to convert and co-opt the “vessel of the Hindu Rashtra” – the body of upper-case women.

On August 15, at a government school in Budwa, Shahdol, Madhya Pradesh, BJP leader Durgesh Tiwari peddled all three components of the trope: anti-Muslim conspiracy theories of “love jihad,” the economic threat of Bangladeshi/Pakistani “ghuspaithiye” (infiltrators), and the claim that Muslims and Christian missionaries were carrying out religious conversions.

On August 20, at the Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) Foundation Day celebration at PGDAV College, Lajpat Nagar, Delhi Cabinet Minister Kapil Mishra spread fear over alleged demographic change and claimed that Rohingya and Bangladeshi “ghuspaith” (infiltrators) have been settled in several states. He also peddled the anti-Muslim “love jihad” conspiracy theory and stoked fears of religious conversion.

“Love Jihad” is the gendered face of the wider conversion hysteria, leveraging sexual anxiety to reinforce the political demand for national purity, Hindu patriarchy, and Muslim exclusion.

Trope 3: Othering & Dehumanisation: Sanctioning Violence and Eliminating Dissent

Dehumanisation is the ultimate rhetorical tool in the architecture of exclusion. Its primary goal is to strip the targeted community— Bengali-origin Muslims and anyone who speaks up for them—of their human status, moral consideration, and constitutional rights.

On September 8, speaking at a yoga programme in Dagarpur village, Baghpat, Uttar Pradesh MLA Nandkishore Gurjar (BJP) claimed, “Swines and Bangladeshi Rohingyas are being settled here, and they will ruin the country. I am fighting with them every day.”

On August 25, at an Akhand Aryavarta Arya Mahasabha event in Lucknow, speaker Mahadev Baba claimed that Bangladeshis and Rohingyas are cannibalistic and “eat human flesh,” alleging they are obtaining Aadhaar cards in India. He targeted Muslims with slogans like “We two, our forty, everyone with an AK-47 in hand” and “We two, our seventy, everyone with bricks and stones in hand,” and questioned who would protect Hindu women from them.

Again, we see how framing the minority as a savage, inhumane threat to Hindu women – the honour of the Hindu community – sanctions aggressive pre-emptive action against Muslim men.

On August 26, the Association for Protection of Civil Rights (APCR) and Karwan-e-Mohabbat jointly convened a public tribunal titled ‘People’s Tribunal on Assam: Evictions, Detentions and the Right to Belong’ at the Constitution Club of India. The event was disrupted by a mob with aggressive and communal sloganeering, including “Desh ke Gaddaro ko / Goli maaro saalo ko” (Shoot the ones who are traitors to the nation).

This report demonstrates how civil society’s attempt to address state-led human rights violations is immediately and aggressively characterized as anti-national activity, thus suppressing democratic dissent in favour of authoritarian majoritarianism.

The Final Test: Invalidation of Constitutional Citizenship

The repeated political rhetoric of the ‘Bangladeshi infiltrator’ ensures that the public consciousness is primed to view Bengali-speaking Muslims as illegal aliens, predatory savages, inhuman – in other words, immediate and acceptable targets for attack.

Reports from Odisha in August 2025 demonstrate the immediate and brutal translation of high-level political hate speech into on-ground action, as Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers faced targeted violence in Sambalpur, Keonjhar, Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara and Bhadrak districts.

Journalists reported that BJP leaders roughed up and handed over 34 Bengali-speaking Muslim migrant workers engaged in the construction sector to the police. The police later released them after verifying that they were from West Bengal, not Bangladesh.

27-year old Noorul Sheikh, a hawker from Chunakhali village (West Bengal), was attacked, beaten and injured by a group of people with saffron flags. “I failed to convince them that I am from West Bengal, not Bangladesh, despite providing my Aadhar card and other residential documents. They dismissed them as fake and were adamant about targeting us for being Bengali-speaking Muslims,” he reported to TwoCircles.

A mason recounted that Bengali-speaking Muslims were made easy targets by individuals carrying saffron flags and loudly chanting “Jai Shri Ram.” “They used vulgar language against Muslims and our religion, Islam, abused us, threatened us to go back to Bangladesh, and attacked and beat some of us despite us showing our Aadhar and Voter ID cards upon request. With folded hands, we repeatedly told them that we are Indian residents of Murshidabad and not Bangladeshi Muslims, but they refused to accept it.”

The pattern of profiling and violence is replicated by state actors across India. On September 8, 18 migrant hawkers from West Bengal were detained for five days by police in Uttar Pradesh’s Basti district after allegedly being labelled as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. The workers, all residents of Murshidabad district, claimed that they were detained despite possessing valid Aadhaar and voter ID cards. Police first detained four or five of the migrants. Their landlord then told the remaining workers to go to the Nagar police station with their identity documents for verification.

The ‘infiltrator’ rhetoric therefore provides ideological cover for state-aligned political groups to conduct arbitrary violence and detention against Indian citizens, based solely on their linguistic identity and religious affiliation. Citizenship, the rule of law, and documentation are all rendered invalid in the face of majoritarian fervour.

The Complete Circuit: Ideology to State-Policy

The incidents recorded during the last few months demonstrate that the systematic targeting of Bengali-origin Muslims as “Bangladeshis” or “ghuspaithiye” (infiltrators) is a targeted campaign of communal nation-building: Indian citizenship is defined not by constitutional rights but by religious identity, aligning with the exclusionary tenets of Hindutva.

The data shows that the hate campaign leverages pre-existing ethnic and communal tensions for electoral gain. The ideological arrow is pushed from the top down: originating from elected ministers like Kapil Mishra and Nitesh Rane, amplified by party subsidiaries (AHP, VHP, Rashtriya Bajrang Dal) and media, and enacted by state police and vigilante mobs.

The rhetorical architecture, encompassing Population Jihad, Love Jihad, and Dehumanisation, converges on the citizen question. By denying the community their Pitribhumi and Punyabhumi, the campaign strips them of the fundamental premise of rights, from which all other civil and democratic rights arise.

The constant, coordinated nature of the campaign, from rallies organized solely for hate speech to the relentless electronic media bombardments, is designed to normalize the narrative. These regurgitated narratives aim to rewrite truth and history through continuous repetition. By the time complaints or judicial processes are put into action, the damage is already done through physical violence, economic deprivation, or deportation.

To dismantle this architecture of exclusion and uphold the constitutional mandate of India, immediate and coordinated action is required from all branches of the state and civil society.

1. Halt Displacement and Ensure Due Process: The state authorities in Assam and other states must immediately halt all eviction and demolition drives targeting Bengali-origin Muslim communities. Due process and rehabilitation for all those evicted must be ensured.
2. Hold State Actors Accountable: State officials, political leaders, and vigilante groups who incite hate or enable communal violence must be held accountable through effective prosecution.
3. The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) should launch a fact-finding mission into human rights violations related to demolitions, hate speech, and displacement.
4. Indian courts should take suo moto cognizance of mass evictions and hate mobilizations to ensure the safety and security of minorities.
5. The Supreme Court’s guidelines on hate speech must be strictly enforced. Concrete steps must be taken to ensure that police stations are not left alone; handbooks detailing these guidelines should be printed in regional languages and provided to all police personnel for education and immediate reference.

(The legal research team of CJP consists of lawyers and interns; this legal resource has been worked on by Raaz)

Footnotes:

^[1] India Hate Lab, ‘Hate Speech Events in India – Report 2024’ (February 6, 2025)

^[2] India Hate Lab, ‘Data Reveals Rising Hate and Violence Against Bengali-Origin Muslims in Assam’ (July 31, 2025)

^[3] Kazi Sharowar Hussain, ‘’You’re Bangladeshi’: ‘Nationalist’ Groups Target Miya Muslims, Give Ultimatum to Leave Upper Assam’ (The Wire, August 14, 2025)

^[4] Yogendra Yadav, ‘Bihar SIR: 789 pages, 1 B.I.G. lie, 0 foreigners’ (National Herald, August 2, 2025)

Related:

1. A Targeted Campaign: The orchestrated crackdown on Bengali Migrants and the rising pushback from courts, Bengal government, and civil society
2. India’s Stealthy Pushback: Thousands of alleged “Bangladeshi immigrants” deported without due process across states

The post How the Hindutva propaganda machine turns citizens into ‘infiltrators’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Gujarat High Court has ordered release of a person detained by Gujarat’s Special Operation Group, on suspicion of being a Bangladeshi national, as principles of natural justice were not followed upon his detention. The Division Bench of Justices Sonia Gokani and Nirzar S Desai noted that the detaining authority has unbridled powers and a report was prepared against the detainee without awarding him any opportunity of being heard. He has been kept under detention since June 2020.

Background

The petitioner’s son was allegedly illegally detained by the Special Operation Group (SOG). She submitted that she has been living in Ahmedabad for a long time and has an Election Card, Ration Card as also Aadhaar Card. But when the corpus (her son) was born, registration of his birth was unknown to her, as she was unlettered. She stated that she was even rehabilitated with her family in the aftermath of the Gujarat riots of 2002 and received a plot and Rs. 50,000/- from the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation in the name of her husband Sidiq Doudbhai Shaikh.

In June 2020, her son was detained by SOG on the suspicion that he is an illegal migrant from Bangladesh and was taken to a detention center. She made several visits to the police station as well as the detention centre, but her son was not released, hence she moved court.

She submitted that her son “is illegally detained in absence of any FIR or any formal complaint and without any sincere efforts to identify the genuineness of his citizenship. This conduct has become a trend and the only victims of this atrocious conduct are the poor citizens of India staying in slums and who are marginalized and voiceless.”

She further submitted, “What is fundamentally flawed in the whole attempt to detain and question the citizenship of the detenue is the fact that when his parents’ citizenship is not questioned and they are deemed to be citizens of India then, how could their child’s citizenship be put to scrutiny and that too, in the complete violation of due process.”

She put forth her complete family history right from her grandparents to her husband’s family lineage and how her husband had moved from West Bengal to Ahmedabad in search for work after which he married her in Ahmedabad itself. She also submitted that they are casual labourers and have a meagre source of income.

She further submitted that her son was born in 1984 and Section 3 of the Citizenship Act, 1955 provides that all those who are born on or after 26th Day of January, 1950 but before the 1st Day of July, 1987, shall be citizens by birth; further both his parents are citizens of India. Even in his School Leaving Certificate it is stated that he was born in West Bengal.

Plight of other detainees

Narrating the plight of other detainees, the petitioner submitted that “15 to 18 other detenue in the SOG premises are there, and one detenue named Zahid is lodged there for about more than 8 years. One Mr. Pannu is there for more than 4 years. A lady is also there for a long time who is separately kept in presence of women police. There is one detenue namely Saiful who was brought a day prior to the corpus and others and they are languishing there without any proper inquiry or trial in SOG Centre.” She added that there was no allegation of custodial violence of ill treatment against SOG by her son.

Respondent’s submissions

The SOG submitted that the corpus, Amir Sidikbhai Shaikh is the citizen of Bangladesh and is originally resident of Village: Diyadanga Post Kaile, Thana: Kaliya, District: Nodail (Bangladesh). He was detained and he never produced any documentary evidence to prove citizenship. He was detained under Section 3 (2)(g) of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and under Section 5 of the Foreigners Order, 1948 so also as per the notification of the State Government dated 02.12.1960. It was further submitted that except the copy of the Aadhaar Card, no other document had been produced and as per section 9 of The Aadhar Act, the Aadhar Card is not the document of citizenship.

Comments of Additional Solicitor General

The court had called upon Additional Solicitor General Devang Vyas to address the Court on the procedure of deportation of illegal nationals. He stated that there are two kinds of persons who can be called illegal:

– those who have already travelled on a travel document and such a document has expired and they continued to stay illegally, and,

– those who have entered illegally.

In the latter, the first step would be verification of nationality to begin the deportation process. The State Authority would contact the ministry of external affairs and would request nationality verification, the ministry would send to the High Commission of Bangladesh requesting them to verify the nationality, to issue a travel permit and upon verification of nationality, such travel permit is issued and deportation of the detainee happens. However, there is no time frame for this process.

The court noted the procedure to be followed under the Foreigners Act and noted that for the purpose of prohibiting, regulating or restricting the entry of foreigners into India the Central Government has the power to make provision either generally or with respect to all foreigners. Therefore, to say that by way of interim measures, the powers exercised are of only restriction, does not go with the scheme of the provision which does not provide for the restriction but speaks of the arrest, detention or confinement.

The court further noted that under section 8 when a foreigner is recognised as a national by law of more than one country or where it is uncertain what nationality is to be ascribed to him, he may be treated as the national of the country with which he appears to be most closely connected for the time being in interest or sympathy or of the country with which he was last so connected.

The court being conscious of precedents and also conscious of the fact that in the event of deciding the question of nationality, the issue shall have to be raised before the appropriate authority by the petitioner, restricted its inquiry into the validity and propriety of the order passed by the civil authority by examining the principles of administrative law. It said, “It shall have to be questioned as to whether the order passed was legal, rational and the procedural propriety also shall need to be inquired into. The principle of natural justice would demand the hearing as also considering the material which has been placed before the authority concerned.”

The court noted that the inquiry made by the detaining authority was limited to the visa and passport of the corpus at the time of detention and at this stage, before the court, many other documents were produced. “There has been no inquiry at all made of the parents of the present corpus as the mother is the petitioner and her nationality is not questioned nor doubted even,” the court pointed out. The court also noted that the corpus has no criminal background and has a wife of Indian nationality and has children as well. It observed, “The Central Government has delegated the powers to the civil authority which is from the State Government and the powers also are given to them to inquire into the nationality of a person, therefore, the powers are to be exercised in accordance with law. The least that is expected of the person who has been given such wide and vital powers of recommending the deportation of a person on the basis that he is not an Indian national, is to avail an opportunity of hearing to the person concerned.”

The court specifically noted that it had questioned the Prosecutor as to whether there is any notice given and a separate opportunity has been made available for those who have been suspected as foreign nationals, to adduce the relevant material for proving the nationality.

The Court did not cast any doubt on the identity of the corpus and noted that his entire family is in India, and said, “The report prepared by the DCP was without even availing opportunity to the corpus and the Additional Commissioner has acted upon the same. We are conveyed that till date, nothing has moved and the corpus continues to be at the detention centre. When serious flaw is noticed in observing principles of natural justice, without entering the issue of nationality, on a limited ground of non-availment of opportunity, this Court deems it appropriate to intervene and to that limited extent, indulgence would be inevitable, noticing unbridled powers assigned to the authority, of course, for catching illegal/unauthorized nationals. Resultantly, the opportunity requires to be availed noticing apparent breach of administrative law and very peculiar facts concerning respondent no.3 and his family.”

The court directed that the corpus be released within one week of this order on certain terms and conditions to ensure his availability if he cannot satisfy the authority on the strength of his testimonials.

The complete judgement may be read here:

Related:

Once declared citizen, same person cannot be declared foreigner by another FT: Gauhati HC
Gauhati HC directs petitioner to apply for citizenship under CAA
Assam woman first declared Indian, then foreigner; Gauhati HC sets her free

The post Guj HC orders release of suspected foreigner detained without being given opportunity to be heard appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The Delhi High Court has asked the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) to inform the court of the procedure to be followed to repatriate foreign nationals, who do not have any documentary proof of their native country. The bench of Justice Prathiba M Singh was dealing with a petition filed by 3 Bangladeshi nationals housed in shelter home in Delhi.

The Kamla Market Police Station informed the court that the 3 petitioners were could not provide any documentary proof in their support but they claim to be Bangladesh citizens and also informed that they do not have any criminal antecedents. The police station has also sent a request letter for deportation to Bangladeshi High Commission.

The court took notice of these submissions and directed the MHA to place on record:

(i) The procedure to be adopted in such cases where no documentary evidence exists in respect of the nationality of a foreign national;

(ii) The procedure for repatriation/deportation of such foreign nationals; and

(iii) If such a procedure exists, the time period and formalities to be completed for the same.

The court has directed MHA to file an affidavit in this regard by May 13. The case will next be heard on May 17.

The order may be read here:

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The post Delhi HC seeks procedure of deportation of foreign nationals found without documents appeared first on SabrangIndia.

BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya became the laughing stock of the nation when he remarked that he suspected some of the labourers conducting repair work in his house were Bangladeshi because they ate poha, a snack made from puffed rice.

NDTV quoted Vijayvargiya saying, “There is some construction work going on at home. Outside, I saw some six-seven labourers sitting with one thali piled up with a huge amount of poha — maybe 10 plates — and eating. I asked, why are you eating poha? They did not answer because they could not speak Hindi. Then one man said they are Bengalis. I suspected something. I asked why they had been hired here. The answer was, they are cheap labour.”

Poha is a beloved snack in different parts of India including Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh and Karnataka.

Shockingly, Vijayvargiya made the statement in Indore, a city known for its Poha pride. Twitter swung into action to educate the ignorant politician. Hashtags like #PohaTwitter and #PohaOnMyPlate started trending. Sample this salvo by proud poha-loving Indoris:

https://twitter.com/Banoliyaa/status/1220786992553709568

According to this poha fact, indore is going to declare as one of the state or capital of bangladesh. Damn in indore every nukkad offers poha and mostly every poha is tasty here. Wait does bangladesh have good poha?
Never mind. Poha jalebi Shyd hi hoga. #Poha #PohaTwitter

— yash banoliya (@Banoliyaa) January 24, 2020

https://twitter.com/madhavmantri/status/1220708817689882626  

#PohaOnMyPlate is a kind of compulsion or the taste of Indore, of which every Indori is proud of, the same Indore to which @KailashOnline belongs and has made his political career from!
With this, he has tried to burn the tradition of Indorehttps://t.co/xq40bGIYkV

— Madhav Mantri (@madhavmantri) January 24, 2020

And here’s more:

https://twitter.com/reshma_alam9/status/1220666939241947137  

I hate POHA !

Can I use this as a proof that I’m an INDIAN? #PohaOnMyPlate

— Reshma Alam (@reshma_alam9) January 24, 2020

https://twitter.com/GDnarbhakshi/status/1220733083823099905

I have heard Sudama took “Poha” for Krishna & he loved it
“Bangladeshis” not just infiltrated Bharat but Mahabharat too ??#PohaTwitter #PohaOnMyPlate #KailashVijayvargiya pic.twitter.com/fnUjbNWYpg

— जनरल नरभक्षी (@GDnarbhakshi) January 24, 2020

https://twitter.com/TXingh/status/1220771305777057792

One of my friend marked safe #PohaTwitter pic.twitter.com/6cfUxA3QMe

— Tajiinder Singh (@TXingh) January 24, 2020

https://twitter.com/Devil1nDetail/status/1220898082084159488

Look what I found on my #poha this morning#PohaOnMyPlate #PohaTwitter pic.twitter.com/qG61Nf72i9

— Pao (@Devil1nDetail) January 25, 2020

Vijayvargiya may have been lampooned by poha-loving Indians, but his anti-Bangladeshi stand cannot be ignored in the present political climate. With the burgeoning movement against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the National Population Register (NPR) and the recently concluded National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam, there is a strong united voice emerging against divisive forces of the ruling regime.

However, of late, there has been an increase in instances of people being harassed after being accused of being Bangladeshi. Recently, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike demolished huts of alleged Bangladeshi immigrants in the Kariyammana Agrahara area. The residents of the impoverished shanty-town were mostly daily wage earners. Social media videos had claimed that illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were sheltered in the settlement. The video of the demolition was also shared on Twitter by Mahadevpura’s BJP MLA Aravind Limbavali where he too reiterated the stance alleging that the residents were illegal Bangladeshi immigrants.

But, upon investigation, it was revealed that most residents of the settlement were from different parts of the country, including Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh and even north Karnataka. The High Court has stayed the demolition for now, though many residents have been forced to go back to their home states.

Earlier in October 2019, 29 men, 22 women and nine girls were picked up during a raid in Marathahalli, Bellandur and Ramamurthy Nagar areas of Bangalore. The people detained were mostly daily wage workers earning their living as construction labourers, garbage collectors and doing menial jobs under contractors. Some of them are also employed by the contractors of the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP). In November, 59 of them were transported to West Bengal for eventual repatriation with Bangladesh.

The post Twitter makes BJP leader eat humble Poha! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Guwahati, January 9, 2020: The leader of the opposition and the Congress legislature party in Assam, Debabrata Saikia has dared BJP strongman and minister of state for finance and health,  Himanta Biswa Sharma to disclose the name of any person from the Congress fold who is a Bangladeshi national or of Bangladeshi origin. The statement of Debabrata Saikia comes hours after Himanta Biswa Sharma alleged that 90% of the Congress legislators in Assam are Bangladeshi! Himanta Biswa Sharma had made the allegations yesterday (January 8) while attending a BJP rally at Dhemaji in upper Assam. He is reported to have said, “Ninety % of the Congress legislature party in Assam is Bangladeshi. They may be citizens, but their forefathers came from Bangladesh. They are of Bangladesh origin. “

Taking strongest note of the false and fabricated statement of Sharma, Saikia added, “thesame people who have created a hue and cry around the existence of Bangladeshis in Assam, are today propagating that Congress has 90% ‘Bangladeshi’ MLAs in the state. Like “Ashathama hoto” he has also tried to salvage his own falsehood by explaining that “may be they are citizens but their forefathers have come from Bangladesh”. This is nothing short of a move to extricate himself from facing legal action. But, I have gone through his statement seriously. I have found that his statement is not only false and fabricated, but it is illegal in the eyes of the law. There are enough points to haul him up legally. We will not spare him for constantly resorting to such propaganda,” said Debabrata Saikia talking to SabrangIndia.

“There is no legislator from the Congress, who has any sort of relation with Bangladesh. Bangladesh was formed on March 25, 1971. Not even a single MLA nor their forefathers have come to Assam after the formation of Bangladesh. There maybe some Congress MLAs with forefathers from erstwhile East-Bengal who came to Assam from undivided India before 1947. They have migrated from one province to another within the same country which was then undivided India. No one can insult them or humiliate calling them “foreigners” nor by tagging them to a country which was born 50 or 100 years after their migration. I challenge Himanta Biswa Sharma to name and prove that any MLA from the Congress who is Bangladeshi or Bangladeshi origin.” Debabrata Saikia further said, “if Himanta Biswa Sharma fails to disclose any name of a Congress MLA who is either a Bangladeshi or Bangladesh origin, he owes an apology to the people of Assam. Or else, all Congress legislators will knock the door of judiciary to take legal action against these derogatory remarks of Himanta Biswa Sharma. ” 

Just two days ago, Himanta Biswa Sharma had even claimed that the AIUDF MLA, Ananta Kumar Mallo, belonging to the Badaruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF has come to Assam from Bangladesh after 1971”. On this, Debabrata Saikia said, “if Ananta Kumar Mallo has come to Assam after 1971, the speaker of Assam legislative Assembly must inquire and take necessary action in this regard.”

Related:

Will push CAB afresh, have new NRC: HemantaBiswaSarma
HimantaBiswaSarma: ‘Once CAB passed, detention camps will shut for Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Christians’
Hindus are not foreigners in India, but Hindus are dying in Assam’s Detention Camps
Behind Shadows: Tales of Injustice from Assam’s Detention camps
Assam Detention Camps: At least 10 people released in compliance with SC order
Recently released detention camp survivor from Assam recalls his ordeal
25 inmates dead in Assam’s Detention Camps!
SubhrataDey died in an Assam Detention Camp: Now he can’t rest in peace
Centre may introduce Citizenship Bill during Nov 18-Dec 13 session
Citizenship Amendment Bill: Divisive Bill
Tripura Doctor Placed under Suspension for Opposing Citizenship Amendment Bill
‘Not Religiously Persecuted’: Amit Shah on Why Muslims Excluded from Citizenship Bill
Will push CAB afresh, have new NRC: HimantaBiswaSarma
National Register of Citizens: How the BJP is turning regional conflicts into national campaigns of hate

The post Disclose name of Bangladeshi legislator from Cong or face legal action: Saikia, Assam appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Guwahati, September 17: The entire debate around outsiders and foreigners has been based on the long held belief that Bangladeshi infiltrators are threatening the demography and culture of Assam. But now, as per a community wise break-up of the over 19 lakh people excluded from the final National Register of Citizens (NRC), nearly a third of the people left out of the list are actually non-Bengali people, many of whom belong to indigenous tribes and ethnic groups. Shockingly thousands of Karbis, Rabhas, Sonowal Kacharis and even Ahoms have been excluded from the final NRC!

Meanwhile, it has emerged that out of the total persons dropped from final NRC, at least 8 lakh people have at least one person from their ARN or family tree, if not their entire families have been included in the final NRC. These people have been dropped due to minor discrepancies in their names, titles, ages or acceptable linkage documents. Of these, at least 2 lakh are minor children. For these two lakh chidren, ironically,both parents’ names have been included in final NRC; but the child has been excluded without giving any proper reason.
 
Meanwhile, a fresh campaign of misinformation has been kickstarted by the communal-chauvinist combine in the state. While a former Chief Minister of Assam recently declared that there are 30 lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi in Assam, he wonders how the number has come down to only 19 lakh. They are also quoting former Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta and former Minister for State, Home Affairs, Union of India who had earlier declared that there are 60 lakhs and 40 lakhs of illegal Bangladeshi residing in Assam. The publication of the final NRC list has dumped cold water over their divisive agenda.
 
All people included in the NRC have had to jump through various bureaucratic hoops and a variety of checks and balances. While the ‘Original Inhabitants’ got some exemptions in terms of submitting certain documentary evidence, Bengali Hindus or Muslims were not offered these relaxations. Their names have been included only because of documentary evidence, not at any one’s behest.
 
According to Nandu Ghosh, CJP Volunteer Motivator for Lower Assam, “The target group (for the) NRC was either Bengali speaking Hindus or Muslims. The continuous support and effort of various social and rights organizations, have alleviated the suffering of the maximum possible number of people. Because of this, excluded persons among Bengali speaking Hindus and Muslims are now under 12 lakhs. Though this is still a huge number for us, the communal-chauvinist combination of Assam Movement are not satisfied with these figures.” Ghosh adds, “It is also important to note that, out of 12 lakhs Bengali speaking people, at least one third are children or such persons of which either their parents’ names or names from their family or family tree have been already included in final NRC.” Ghosh also points out another important aspect of exclusion. “If the Citizenship card, Migration Certificate or Refugee inmate Certificates would have been accepted– in accordance with the Modalities, SOP of the NRC and as per Supreme Court directives– at least two-thirds of the Bengali Hindu Population excluded from final NRC would have not been affected,” says Ghosh.

The post Over 7 lakh Hindus among those excluded from the NRC, leaked data suggests appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Photo Courtesy: Moneycontrol

It is time Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi reins in Bharatiya Janata Party president Amit Shah and his friends from vitiating the process of updating the National Register of Citizens for Assam, which aims to separate genuine Indian citizens from those the State defines as “illegal immigrants”. Through their venomous speeches they have turned the exercise into a tool for communal polarisation and terrorising Indians outside the northeastern state in a bid to gain votes.

Justice Gogoi has a reason to worry because he and Justice Rohinton F Nariman have been supervising the updating exercise. Even though there have been many claims of faulty exclusion from the National Register of Citizens, the process has acquired credibility precisely because the Supreme Court’s monitoring of it has been devoid of political motivations.

But this perception is likely to change, if it has not already, because of the manner in which Shah and the BJP have been invoking the National Register of Citizens to frame the undocumented immigrants issue in India. This comes at a time polls in five states – Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram – are imminent. Ever since July 30, when the final draft of the National Register of Citizens was made public, Shah has been explicitly or implicitly crediting the decision to identify such immigrants to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

This is downright fiction. The exercise to update the National Register of Citizens in Assam – for the first time since 1951 – was because of a Supreme Court ruling in 2013. Modi and the BJP had not yet come to power then. Judges are not inclined to demand credit. But what is worrying is the gradual politicisation of the National Register of Citizenship updating process.

For instance, on August 4, at a public rally in Rajsamand district of poll-bound Rajasthan, Shah said, “The BJP government has undertaken the screening of illegal Bangladeshis in the country but Congress is opposing so that their vote-bank remains intact.” He, however, also said at the rally, “There is a Supreme Court order and we will ensure it is implemented and they are identified.”

But it is not the BJP government but the bureaucracy, working under the supervision of the Supreme Court, which is engaged in the exercise of updating the National Register of Citizens. Nor is it correct to describe the 40 lakh people who did not make it to the final draft of the National Register of Citizens as “illegal Bangladeshis”.

For one, they all have yet another chance to prove their citizenship before the register is finalised. It is likely that the figure of 40 lakh could go down dramatically. Second, those who fail to make it to even to the final National Register for Citizens will still not become “illegal immigrants”. In each case, that status will have to be judicially determined.

But such legal subtleties are lost on Shah. In Gangapur town of Rajasthan on September 22, Shah was reported as saying, “The BJP government brought NRC [National Register of Citizens] and prima facie identified nearly 40 lakh illegal immigrants.”

Depending on what Shah speaks and where, it could very well appear to his listeners that the Supreme Court’s role in the updating of National Register for Citizens was either nominal or subservient to that of the government. Or, worse, both were working in tandem.

Us vs them

This should worry the chief justice because Shah has fashioned the National Register of Citizens into a veritable instrument for both terrorising and polarising people. In doing so, he has violated the very spirit of the observation that the bench of Justice Gogoi and Justice Nariman had made after the final draft of National Register for Citizens was released. They had said, “Court would like to observe that what has been submitted is a complete draft NRC [National Register of Citizens] which, naturally being a draft, cannot be the basis for any action by any authority.”

For sure, the Modi government has not taken any action on the basis of the draft. Nevertheless, in language both menacing and virulent, Shah has laid out a template for what that action would be in the future. For instance, in the rally at Gangapur, Shah said: “The infiltrators have eaten the country like termites.”

The only way to tackle termites is to eradicate them. The use of the word “termites” conjures a violent imagery, suggestive of the liquidation of human beings as a solution even though it is possible Shah did not literally mean it. Equating illegal immigrants with termites certainly dehumanises them. But it was not a one-off lapse. Shah repeated the word “termites” again at a rally in Madhya Pradesh, another poll-bound state. “While you [farmers] feed the people, they [soldiers] guard our borders,” Shah told the crowd at Ratlam on October 6. “But infiltrators are like termites, which eat away at the country’s security. They need to be removed.”

The National Register of Citizens is fast emerging as the most potent weapon of “othering” segments of Indians – that is, treating people of one group as outsiders and enemies. This is discernible from an analysis of Shah’s public speech in Delhi on September 23. “There are illegal infiltrators in Delhi,” he said. “Are they not a problem, tell me? Shouldn’t we remove these illegal infiltrators? Illegal infiltrators in crores have entered the country.” In Shah’s imagination, the 40 lakh people who could not make it to the final draft of the National Register of Citizens for Assam have multiplied to crores of infiltrators who slip through the borders to settle in different parts of the country. In Delhi at least, Shah described illegal infiltrators as those who “throw bombs and kill innocent citizens”.

Shah resorts to ambiguity of language because undocumented immigrants have never been perceived as a demographic or economic threat in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh or Delhi. His description of undocumented immigrants consequently becomes an innuendo against Indian Muslims, some of whom have been convicted in terror activities in the past. His references are in the nature of dog’s whistle that seeks to arouse the majority community’s suspicion of Muslims. Alarmingly, in Delhi, Shah again resorted to the termite imagery. “Like termites, they have eaten the future of the country,” he said. “Shouldn’t they be uprooted?”

The issue of undocumented immigrants has a long history. But what is new is the projection of the National Register of Citizens as a magical mechanism that was not available earlier to sift such immigrants from genuine citizens. Shah is implying that it is imperative to introduce the mechanism across India as there are, according to him, “crores of infiltrators” in the country.

It is this twisted logic that has had Haryana Chief Minister ML Khattarpromise that the National Register of Citizens will be updated for his state too. This will certainly terrify Haryana’s Muslims, who comprise just about 7% of the state’s population. Economically and educationally backward, their citizenship will be imperilled in the absence of requisite documents to prove it. Unlike Assam, the people of Haryana do not have a tradition of maintaining documents dating decades ago. However, the Hindus of Haryana will not fear the National Register of Citizens because their names will become a foolproof guarantee of their citizenship status. Haryana is not a border state. After Partition, unlike Assam, it has not reported an influx of Hindus from Pakistan or Bangladesh. From this perspective, the National Register of Citizens has become a tool for profiling and tormenting Muslims.

Supreme Court must act

The Supreme Court has been understandably sensitive on the National Register of Citizens issue. For instance, when the coordinator of the National Register of Citizens, Prateek Hajela, told the Indian Express in August that it was premature to describe as infiltrators the 40 lakh people who could not make it to the final draft, Justice Gogoi and Justice Nariman severely reprimanded him. “We should be holding both of you [the other person was registrar general Sailesh] guilty of contempt and sending both of you to jail. Whatever you say they all reflect on us,” the justices said.

Shah and leaders of the BJP are not officers of the court. Yet there can be little doubt that their pronouncements have brought the National Register of Citizens into disrepute, which, as it was in the case of Hajela, also reflects on the Supreme Court. Might not Chief Justice Gogoi take suo motu notice of Shah’s comments to rein him in from turning the National Register of Citizens into a darkled symbol of the future awaiting the nation?

Courtesy: Scroll.in
 

The post Hate Speech, Polarisarion, NRC & Amit Shah: Must the SC Act ? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Mumtaz Dewan, the daughter of Kamala Begum, and her father.
 

The Idea Of a ‘Foreigner’:
The Assam Accord, signed in 1985, has played an extremely important role in this regard. The issue of ‘foreigner’ was central to this Accord. Contested migrations after two partitions (1947 and 1971) along with a subsequent surge in Assamese nationalism resulted in a policing of “foreigners”. As a result, the Assam accord enlisted a series of measures to be taken as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the All Assam Students Union along with Assam Gana Sangram Parishad. One of the most important points of the Accord was that all ‘foreigners’ who had arrived after March 1971 be expelled from the state.

The Creation of a D voter:
Following the Accord, it was in July 1997 that the Election Commission of India (ECI) asked the state government to segregate its citizens and non-citizens. Following this, the ECI prepared a list of voters in the state and mark ‘D’ (doubtful) next to the names of people who were suspected to be non-citizens. In 1997, this list included 3.5 lakh names. As of February 2017 according to Assam Parliamentary Affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, the Assam Border Police were conducting investigations into 6,21,688 cases related to foreigners till October 2016. Of these, 4,44,189 were referred to the 100 Tribunals established in the state, where about 2,01,928 cases are still pending.

Detentions:
Among the cases that have been ‘resolved’ however, are the stories of about 1,800 persons who have been detained across Assam on charges of being a Bangladeshi. Even the most cursory conversations with the families of the detained people show that almost all the detainees belong to poor families who could barely afford any lawyers or appeal against the judgement issued by the Foreigners’ Tribunal. Since this issue comes under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 1964, a lot of times the lawyers are unaware of how to approach the case but nevertheless take it for easy money.

In this three-part series, TwoCircles.net looks at how detention camps are wreaking havoc with the lives of people, especially Muslims, across the state. In the second of a three-part series, we tell the story of Kamala Begum, a middle-aged Bengali woman who was born and brought up in Barpeta. However, due to a mix of legal complications and incompetent lawyers, Begum has been in detention for nearly three years now with no hopes of coming out. After her arrest, her daughter’s dreams were crushed and her husband remains bedridden, dependent on well-wishers to survive.

Read Part One Here

The month was September, the year 2015. Mumtaz Dewan, then 19, was in her fourth semester at the Kayakuchi College located in the Kayakuchi village of Sarthebari Tehsil of Barpeta district. During one of her classes, her mobile rang. It was her mother, Kamala Begum, calling. This was not something unexpected, Mumtaz thought. She called her back after the end of her class, only to be stunned by what her mother said on the phone. “I am in the SP office…my appeal was dismissed in the Gauhati High Court. They are going to take me to the detention camp,” was all she could say before she burst into tears on the phone. In just a few minutes, the lives of Mumtaz and Kamala changed forever.

Nearly three years later, Mumtaz says she remembers the entire day like it happened yesterday as she welcomes us to her father’s house. It is an extremely overcast day and as there is no electricity, we sit in near darkness until Mumtaz opens a side-door. The house was allotted to the family as part of the Indira Awas Yojana in the early 70s. As we sit on plastic chairs, she begins telling us about the tragic story of Kamala Begum, her mother and an ‘illegal Bangladeshi’ residing in Assam.

“My mother was declared a D voter in 2014…that time, she used to work in the Barpeta office of a Guwahati-based NGO, cleaning dishes and making tea,” Mumtaz says in the beginning. With a salary of Rs 3,000, she took care of her ailing husband but more importantly enrolled her daughter in college so that she could study and make a career. “That was her biggest dream,” Mumtaz says, as her voice begins to quiver. “She did not have a son and my elder sister had already got married, so she wanted to do everything to ensure that I can become something and take care of them,” Mumtaz says, now in tears.

Kamala Begum.

When her name was listed as a Doubtful voter in 2014, Kamala Begum was incensed. Usually, after a person is deemed D Voter, he/she receives a summons from the Foreigners’ Tribunal asking him/her to appear before the Tribunal and prove their citizenship. But Kamala did not have the patience to wait. “She went to the Tribunal on her own accord…for her, this was a matter of disrespect and extremely insulting. She would say ‘How can I be called a Bangladeshi when I have lived all my life here’? She wanted to do everything in her power to get rid of that label,” Mumtaz recalls. However, once in the Tribunal, things began to go downhill for Kamala.

Kamala might have been passionate about her case, but, as Mumtaz points out, she was illiterate and could not understand the legal proceedings. She was born about 20 km away from her home in Kayakuchi in the same district but had never voted in her native village. “There is every chance that in some documents, her name’s spelling might have been misspelt or that her name appeared on another electoral roll. It could also be that her father’s name might have been spelt wrong which put her legacy in question,” Mumtaz says. The family was not helped by the fact that their lawyer in the Barpeta Foreigners’ Tribunal was incompetent.

Saiful Islam, Kamala’s nephew and the only member of the family who can manage to visit her regularly, explains. “When she lost her case in the FT towards the end of 2014, we were shocked. The lawyer, who I do not wish to name, took a lot of money but clearly did not do his job well. So, we approached the High Court hoping that the ruling will be overturned.” he says.

Until the Gauhati High Court passed a verdict, she was mandated to appear in the Barpeta SP office every month. “I do not know how or why, but the case in High Court also fell apart,” says Mumtaz. “In September 2016, when my mom went to appear before the SP, she was told that her case had been dismissed in the HC also and that she was under arrest. Our lawyer, who was arranged by a political leader following our pleas, was so uninterested in the case that he did not even bother to inform the family,” she adds.

The arrest of Kamala brought Mumtaz and her father’s life to a complete standstill. Left without the only breadwinner in the family, Mumtaz and her father had to depend on their extended family to meet even the basic needs. With only two semesters left, Mumtaz had no choice but to drop out of college. “Who would pay my fees in the absence of my mother?” she says, her voice still shaking from the traumatic memories of the period. “I went from the chances of building my career to being married to my uncle’s son within months. Now, I was just another housewife with no independence and with no one to take care of my father,” she says. By now, tears are rolling down her cheeks as her father, who is sitting next to her, stares at us dead silent. Even though it is March, he is wrapped in two old shawls and on days he is feeling better, he can barely manage to go the toilet.

“After marriage, you are a member of that family. You have to do things the way they want you to do…my in-laws are much more considerate than my sister’s in-laws but they also don’t want me to be visiting my mother every week or month. In fact, last year I met her after a gap of nearly 12 months and haven’t been able to meet her since,” she says. Given that she has no money of her own, she cannot ask her in-laws to pay for the travel and give her money so that she can give some to her mother, Mumtaz says.

But the bad news did not end for the family here. After the HC, the court managed to go to the Supreme Court also, only for her case to be rejected there also. “Till date, we do not know why our case has been rejected…the HC and SC refused to overturn the FT order but even now we do not know what exactly did the FT find so fishy about her case,” Mustafa Ali, Kamala’s brother, says. Sitting next to him is the mother of Kamala Begum, Rashida Begum who is in her early 90s. Barely able to walk and partially deaf, Rashida starts crying the moment she hears her daughter’s name. “I haven’t seen my daughter in three years now…my family says she has a tumour and diabetes…I want to see her before I die. How can they do this to my daughter,” Rashida says in a tearful voice. “People around me ask: why don’t you go to see her? I tell them how can I? I can barely walk and will not be able to sit on a bus for so long…it hurts me so much every time I think of her. She was born in this house,” she adds.

It is a question that still brings tears to all the family members. “We are all Indian citizens until now at least…then how can she be a Bangladeshi? How does this even happen and what can we do about this? Will they send her to Bangladesh? No. They just want her to die in the detention camp,” says Mumtaz. “To be honest, even deportation would be better than the condition in which she is being kept right now. No human deserves to be treated like this, least of all an Indian citizen in her own state,” says Saiful.

Courtesy: Two circles

The post ‘My mother is dying in a detention camp because of being labelled a Bangladeshi. How can this be allowed?’ appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Sajahan Ali talking to TwoCircles.net about his detention.
 

The Idea Of a ‘Foreigner’ :
The Assam Accord, signed in 1985, has played an extremely important role in this regard. The issue of ‘foreigner’ was central to this Accord. Contested migrations after two partitions (1947 and 1971) along with a subsequent surge in Assamese nationalism resulted in a policing of “foreigners”. As a result, the Assam accord enlisted a series of measures to be taken as part of a Memorandum of Understanding between the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and the All Assam Students Union along with Assam Gana Sangram Parishad. One of the most important points of the Accord was that all ‘foreigners’ who had arrived after March 1971 be expelled from the state.

The Creation of a D voter :
Following the Accord, it was in July 1997 that the Election Commission of India (ECI) asked the state government to segregate its citizens and non-citizens. Following this, the ECI prepared a list of voters in the state and mark ‘D’ (doubtful) next to the names of people who were suspected to be non-citizens. In 1997, this list included 3.5 lakh names. As of February 2017 according to Assam Parliamentary Affairs minister Chandra Mohan Patowary, the Assam Border Police were conducting investigations into 6,21,688 cases related to foreigners till October 2016. Of these, 4,44,189 were referred to the 100 Tribunals established in the state, where about 2,01,928 cases are still pending.

Detentions :
Among the cases that have been ‘resolved’ however, are the stories of about 1,800 persons who have been detained across Assam on charges of being a Bangladeshi. Even the most cursory conversations with the families of the detained people show that almost all the detainees belong to poor families who could barely afford any lawyers or appeal against the judgement issued by the Foreigners’ Tribunal. Since this issue comes under the Foreigners Act, 1946 and Foreigners (Tribunal) Order, 1964, a lot of times the lawyers are unaware of how to approach the case but nevertheless take it for easy money.

In this three-part series, TwoCircles.net looks at how detention camps are wreaking havoc with the lives of people, especially Muslims, across the state.

In the first of the three-part series, we tell the story of Sajahan Ali, an Assamese-speaking Muslim who was in jail (detention) for 11 months on charges of being an illegal Bangladeshis. While he may be out now, the case has broken his family, left him with no savings, a sizeable burden to pay off and a mortgaged house.

A week before Ramadan was about to begin, Sajahan Ali, a resident of Buzurg Manikpur village in Barpeta District, had gone over to his mother’s house for the night. Dining at a stone’s throw away from his own house, Sajahan decided to call it a night in his mother’s house while his wife and two children remained home. At that time, Sajahan Ali did not realise that this was the last night his family was together. Around midnight, the police knocked on the door. Ali, confused and scared, thought that they had come to arrest him for a small-time feud which took place a few months ago. “I remember that night well…when the police came, I thought it was because I was involved in a local feud and a fellow resident of this village had filed a complaint. But I did not understand why they needed to arrest me in the middle of the night,” Ali says in a conversation with TwoCircles.net.

TwoCircles.net met Ali in a village called Kukiripada, located about 30 km from his village, where he was working with other men erecting electric poles as part of the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gram Jyoti Yojana. It has only been three days since he came out of the jail but Ali has little time to take rest or reflect on what happened over the past 11 months. Having erected the last pole for the day, Ali and other men sit down to discuss the trauma that Ali has undergone in the past year. “It was only when I was produced before the Foreigners’ Tribunal that I realised that I had been arrested on charges of being an illegal Bangladeshi in Assam,” he says. “I was shocked…all my life, I had been living here without any such issue. I voted in 2016 state elections and all elections before that. How did I become a Bangladeshi all of a sudden?”

Within a few days, Ali, who is in his early 40s, went from being a poor resident of an Assamese village to a poor ‘illegal Bangladeshi’ in Assam. He was now one of the about 1,800 people who had been put in one of the six ‘detention camps’ in Assam. Talking about his case, Ali explains, “When my case was brought to the Foreigners’ Tribunal, I found that I had been a D-voter (doubtful voter) since 2005 and that I was being arrested because I had failed to reply/honour any of the court summonses that had been sent to me.”

But like most of the cases of D-voters, Ali’s case was much more than what met the eye. Turns out, Ali says, he had been declared a doubtful voter in the same district (Goalpara), but in a different Tehsil (Dudhnoi) in 2005. Over the next 12 years, as the court paper shows, he had been sent a summons seven times by the Foreigners’ Tribunal but he never showed up so finally, he had been tracked down and arrested. “My voting is in Buzurg Manikpur, which falls under Goalpara East. I was declared a doubtful voter in a Tehsil and village that I had never resided in. How was I to know what happened?” Regarding the summons, he says, “I was supposedly sent a summons but at an address where I have never lived. Then how am I supposed to respond? If you live in one village and a letter comes for you in another village, how are you at fault?” he asks.

Ali’s claim might be valid, but this did not matter much when it came to the legal implications. As the summons went unanswered, his case was declared ‘hanging’ and the Assam Border Police, which is the main security force which looks after this issue, pushed for an ex-parte decree in this case. An ‘Ex parte decree’ is a decree passed against a defendant in absentia. On the date of hearing, if only the plaintiff appears and a defendant does not appear, the Court may hear the suit ex parte and pass a decree against the defendant. So, while Ali had been working as a labour in Assam and then in Meghalaya, the Police were on a ‘lookout’ for him.

All of this meant that after he was arrested in July, he was sent to the Barpeta detention camps, located about 100 km from his residence. Inside, he realised that being an illegal Bangladeshi was even worse than being a criminal. “We were kept separately from the convicts and treated much worse too. The food was horrible, the hygiene was non-existent and we had no money. We could not even work in the jail.”

Nurul Islam, a lawyer based out of Goalpara who handled Ali’s case, explained how the case unfolded “After Sajahan Ali was arrested, we approached the Gauhati High Court for a stay order since the FT had passed an ex-parte order. It took us nearly four months, but we finally got the stay. Then, the case was contested in Foreigners’ Tribunal and I presented all the required proof of residence on behalf of Ali. Earlier this month, Ali finally won the case in the FT and he was free after nearly eleven months in jail.”

Given that most people sent to detention camps either spend years inside or are still inside, one might even say that Ali was lucky: he, after all, came out within 10 months. But of course, the arrest has taken a massive toll on his life. “In the days following my arrest, my wife left with my son and went to her parents’ place. I am not sure why she did so…maybe she thought I would never come back. I haven’t even seen my son in almost a year…my daughter, who had got recently married, was sent back by her in-laws after they came to know that I had been arrested as an illegal Bangladeshi. Thankfully, my brother and his wife along with our extended family took care of her. My brother is also a worker. When I was in jail and we had an appeal in the High Court, he had to mortgage his brother’s house to raise the much-needed money. Now, Ali is scared thinking if/when he will lose the house. “I don’t know how I will save my house…and even if I save my house, my family is broken…who will live there?” he asks.

In such cases, the need for legal aid becomes paramount but given the complexities of the issue, there are no such facilities available for the detainees. “In any other case in Indian courts, if the accused cannot afford a lawyer, he/she is provided one by the government. But not in these cases…similarly, once sent to detention, there is no bail, no parole not even to appear in your own case even when you appeal the verdict in the High Court,” says Islam.

As we end our conversation, Ali can barely hold his tears. He says, “I am a poor person but I had a family. I lost a year’s worth of income, I have almost lost my house and my wife and son left me…for what? How can I be a Bangladeshi when I have lived here all my life, like the rest of my family?” He shrugs off any idea that he should file for compensation. “I do not have the time, money or the courage to approach the courts again…when you see the condition in which human beings are made to live in these detention camps, you thank Allah for bringing you out of it. I hope others also come out…it is hell inside. No human being, Indian or Bangladeshi, should ever be made to live like that,” he says.

Courtesy: Two Circles
 

The post A broken family, a massive debt and a mortgaged house: How Sajahan Ali’s life was destroyed due to false ‘Bangladeshi’ charges appeared first on SabrangIndia.