New Delhi: At a rally in Jharkhand’s Hazaribagh on Gandhi Jayanti, October 2, Prime Minister Narendra Modi claimed that the population of Hindus and Adivasis is declining and that of “Bangladeshi infiltrators” is increasing under the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha government.
Jharkhand is slated to go for assembly polls later this year.
“They have never let Adivasis advance. They are preparing a new vote bank in Jharkhand…The Santhal Parganas are a living example of this. Here, Adivasi residents are constantly decreasing and infiltrators’ numbers are increasing consistently. Such a quick change in the demography signals a decline in the population of Adivasis and Hindus. Are you able to see this change in Jharkhand or not? Has the number of Bangladeshi infiltrators increased rapidly or not?” Modi was heard saying in his Hindi speech, which was broadcast on several mainstream media channels.
Modi and his party have of late amped up the “Bangladeshi infiltrator” rhetoric in the run up to the Jharkhand polls. By “infiltrator”, leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party mean “immigrants.”
He further exhorted the audience to answer as to whether “infiltrators were taking hold of the land here or not.”
“Jharkhand’s daughters, Adivasi community daughters are their targets or not? You see this threat, you see this change in the demography but the Jharkhand government does not. It is not prepared to admit that the population balance is awry in Jharkhand and the Adivasi population is declining,” he said.
Jharkhand’s chief minister, Hemant Soren, belongs to an Adivasi community. Soren was jailed earlier this year for five months in an alleged land scam case by the Enforcement Directorate, a central agency largely believed to have been used by the ruling BJP to encumber opposition parties and leaders. Soren got bail in July but ground reports during the Lok Sabha election period had suggested that his incarceration had angered a large section of Jharkhand voters against the Modi-led BJP government. Jharkhand’s various tribal groups comprise over 26% of the population according to the 2011 Census.
Amit Shah
Bangladesh had, on September 23, lodged a protest note with India over similar comments made by Union home minister Amit Shah.
Shah had accused the Soren government of allowing “infiltrators” to take over the state at a rally in Shahganj.
“Infiltrators are the vote bank of Lalu Prasad’s RJD [Rashtriya Janata Dal], Rahul baba‘s [Rahul Gandhi] Congress and chief minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. I promise to drive out illegal immigrants. The time has come to show the corrupt JMM dispensation the exit door…We want to change Jharkhand,” he had said.
