Get ready with bags packed
Is it merely election rhetoric or something beyond that? That is the question many political analysts have started asking after BJP's prime minister hopeful Narendra Modi raised for the third time the issue of Bangladeshi immigrants in India.
Speaking at a rally in Srirampur of West Bengal on Sunday, Modi said “Bangladeshis” will be deported if his party was voted to power. “Bangladeshis” have been given red carpet welcome by politicians in West Bengal just for votes, he added. It was seen as his sharpest comment yet on illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country.
“You can write it down. After May 16 [when vote counting is taken up after India's marathon parliamentary elections], these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed,” said the BJP leader.
On two earlier occasions during electioneering in the north-eastern state of Assam in February and March, Modi had merely raised the issue of illegal migration from Bangladesh. But analysts note that in a clear scaling up of his pitch he on Sunday threatened that a BJP-led government would deport them.
Targeting the West Bengal's ruling Trinamool Congress government, Modi said, "You are rolling out the red carpet for vote bank politics. If people come from Bihar, they are outsiders to you. If people come from Odisha, they are also outsiders to you. But if some Bangladeshis come, your face seems to be shining. This country cannot run like this. We won't allow you to destroy the country for the sake of your vote bank politics.”
Modi had raised the immigrant issue in Assam, when he appeared to have drawn a distinction between the Hindu and Muslim immigrants.
“We have a responsibility towards the Hindus who face harassment and sufferings in other countries. Where will they go? India is the only place for them. Our government cannot continue to harass them. We will have to accommodate them here,” he said. The Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) manifesto also mentions that India is a natural home for the persecuted Hindus.
While the BJP has always kept on its agenda the issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh, Modi's comments on the issue during electioneering has raised concerns. The question now arises whether he is seeking to benefit from a perceived polarisation or he really meant it.
All opinion polls to date have put Modi as the frontrunner, but then such surveys are notoriously unreliable.
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