BJP has repeatedly brought up the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators before the elections in the Indian state of Jharkhand. Prime Minister Narendra Modi himself told a public meeting in Jharkhand on Wednesday that the number of Bangladeshi infiltrators is increasing rapidly in the state.
Earlier, BJP leaders like Defense Minister Rajnath Singh, Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Vishwasharma have repeatedly commented that the demographics of Jharkhand are changing because of Bangladeshi infiltrators. BJP leaders have also expressed the fear that tribals will become a minority in the near future.
Top BJP leaders including Home Minister Amit Shah have also threatened to call Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators ‘termites’ or ‘find them and throw them into the Bay of Bengal’.
Most of the time the Bangladesh government did not protest strongly even after those comments. But the interim government of Bangladesh formally protested Amit Shah’s comments in a public meeting in Jharkhand. Bangladesh summoned India’s deputy ambassador in Dhaka and issued a protest note.
International relations experts think that such a protest is a very rare event.
The Prime Minister went to Hazaribagh on Wednesday to address the closing ceremony of the BJP’s ‘Parivarthan Yatra’ rally before the Jharkhand elections.
Modi’s entire speech is available on his official X (formerly Twitter) handle.
Addressing the ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha and Congress coalition government in the state, Modi said that those who are running the government want to change the identity of Jharkhand, they want to destroy the centuries-old identity of Jharkhand. In whose hands the Congress wants to turn the tribal community of Jharkhand into a minority. They know that forever they have been cheating the tribals, never allowing them to come to the front line. So they want to create new vote bank to stay in power.
Citing the example of Santal Pargana, the Prime Minister said that there “the tribal population is steadily decreasing, while the number of intruders is increasing at the same rate.”
“There is a huge change in demographics, the number of tribals and Hindus has decreased. I would like to know if you are seeing this change in Jharkhand or not? Is the number of Bangladeshi infiltrators increasing or not?’ asked Narendra Modi.
His further question to the people present in the public meeting, ‘Are the Bangladeshi intruders occupying the land here or not? Are they targeting the women of Jharkhand, tribal women? You can see this danger, you can see this change in demographics, but the Jharkhand government is not seeing it.
The ruling Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress alliance says the BJP is trying to polarize the tribals by repeatedly bringing up the issue of Bangladeshi infiltrators.
According to them, it has been 24 years since the formation of Jharkhand state, out of which BJP was in power for 16 years. Then why did the BJP not raise the issue of population change?
Local journalists say that Jharkhand has many Bengali-speaking Muslim residents. They are the original inhabitants of that place. If you see someone speaking in Bengali, they are considered to be Bangladeshi infiltrators in many cases. That is inappropriate.
