Why is the BJP playing the ‘Bangladeshi infiltrator’ card?

September 30, 2024

DHAKA – Led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has placed “infiltration” of Rohingyas and Bangladeshis at the core of its high-decibel campaign for assembly elections in the eastern state of Jharkhand due later this year. At a series of public meetings in a space of one week or so, Modi and his close aide Amit Shah, home minister, amplified the infiltration issue in their separate ways. But some comments made by Shah at one of the rallies drew a sharp retort from the Bangladesh foreign ministry.

Shah may not have been entirely unaware that his remarks in Jharkhand could raise the hackles in Bangladesh like his “termite” description of allegedly illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in the run up to West Bengal assembly elections had done more than three years ago.

It was Prime Minister Narendra Modi who first raised the issue of infiltration at a rally in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, when he blamed the state’s ruling coalition of Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), Congress and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) for change of demography in Santhal Parganas and Kolhan by allegedly facilitating infiltration of Rohingya and Bangladeshis. He said Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltration poses a major threat to Jharkhand as it is “rapidly changing” the identity and demography of the Santhal Pargana and Kolhan regions. Thereafter Amit Shah, BJP President J P Nadda and senior leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in their separate rallies, also flagged the issue.

Nadda in his speech accused the JMM-led alliance of patronising the forces indulging in “love jihad,” “land jihad” and “infiltration jihad.” Shah too, at a rally at Giridih, said, “If infiltration is not checked, illegal immigrants will become the