Indians being thrown out of India. Why govt has turned against its own

Mumbai, the city that never sleeps, had dozed off by then.

Fajer Mandal and his wife Taslima Ishak Mandal were in deep sleep after the usual backbreaking toil of the day. A sudden thudding on the door of their rented slum-house jolted them off the slumber. It was around 2am on June 10.

Fajer (22) worked as a mason at a construction site in Mumbai’s Mira Road area. His wife worked as domestic help in the neighbourhood, adding her bit to the family’s meagre income.

When the couple opened the door, a large contingent of police stood in front. They were on a hunt for illegal-migrants from Bangladesh, a drive being carried out in all BJP-ruled states across India at home ministry’s directive in the aftermath of the Pahalgam attack of April 22.

The factors that made the couple a suspect is their religion Islam and their mother-tongue Bengali as has been the modus-operandi of the controversial exercise across states.

The couple and several other Bengali-speaking Muslims were arrested without warrant, detained in a building owned by the Bombay Municipal Corporation (BMC), and kept incommunicado for four days, alleged Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha (MASUM) in a letter to the National Human Rights Commission.

On June 13 at around 1 pm, the detainees were transported under heavy security, chained, to Pune Army Airport, flown to Bagdogra airport in West Bengal and then driven to Border Security Force (BSF)’s Kayladangi border outpost in North Dinajpur district, the rights body told the NHRC chairman. From there, they were pushed across the fenced border into Bangladesh at night.

Narrating their ordeals, Fajer told The Federal that they were “pushed back” despite producing before the police their Aadhar card and other relevant documents.

On being informed about the detention of his son and daughter-in-law, Tahjul Mandal, father of the victim, sent on WhatsApp more documents, such as land records, as sought by the police to establish the Indian citizenship of his son and daughter-in-law.

None convinced the police.

“If these documents were not enough to prove the identity of my children, what else could?” Mandal asked, a question the government of India now perhaps needed to clarify to allay the fear its arbitrary drive has sparked among Bengali migrant workers.

Once Fajer and five others were pushed into the neighbouring country’s territory, they were intercepted by the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB).

“We were taken to a nearby field and kept there. Local Bangladeshi residents gave us food and water while we remained stranded in an open field for two days as stateless citizens,” Fajer recalled.

Mumbai police and the BSF did not even bother to inform the families about the “pushback”, Mandal alleged. Mobile phones of his son and daughter-in-law were seized.

“I came to know about their whereabouts only when the BGB contacted me,” he said.

Mandal, a native of Hariharpur village of North 24 Parganas district, then approached the local Bagdah police station and panchayat authority.

Chairperson of the West Bengal Migrant Welfare Board (WBMWB) and Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Samirul Islam said they had been deported keeping the state government in the dark, which is making difficult for the state to make at the point intervention.

Finally, following the involvement of the West Bengal government seven of them were brought back on June 16. But not before, Mandal, who does not have regular employment, coughed out his hard-earned money, amounting to Rs 18,000 in running around.

“On getting the phone call from the BGB, in desperation I rushed to Dinajpur from Bagdah hiring a car,” he said. “Thanks to the cooperation of the Bagdah police and local panchayat members, I could bring my children back.”

Not all are that lucky.

“Thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims have been rounded up from different states in recent weeks, many of them were pushed into Bangladesh without any legal process. Only a few could be brought back,” pointed out Kirity Roy, secretary of the MASUM. Since these "push-backs" are done secretly, there is no exact figure as yet as to how many people from Bengal were deported till date, he said, adding they are trying to collect data after doing the "headcounts of missing people."

In Rajasthan alone around 400 people from West Bengal had been detained by police on suspicion of being Bangladeshis despite possessing valid identity documents, chief minister Mamata Banerjee told the media on Tuesday.

Terming the crackdown as a witch-hunt against Bengali-speakers, the chief minister said she would take up the matter with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The most widespread targeting is reported from the BJP-ruled Assam, which has invoked the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act of 1950 to deport alleged Bangladeshis.

As per Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s own admission over 300 people had been “pushed back” to Bangladesh in recent weeks.

He defended the action claiming that the 1950-law authorised the district officials to expel suspected foreigners without any ruling of the Foreigners Tribunal

Legal experts, however, warned that this interpretation of the law is dangerous. “The 1950 Act cannot override due process,” said Gauhati High Court advocate Aman Wadud. “Tribunal hearings are a legal safeguard. Deporting people based on suspicion is illegal and inhumane.”

But the viciousness of the exercise got exposed when the state was forced to take back around 60 people, who could establish that their “deportation” was unjust.

India claimed to have handed over a list of 2,369 “illegal migrants” to the Bangladesh government for verification of their nationality. But even before getting the response from Dhaka, it launched the expulsion drive.

“The deportations, which are being carried out without due process, raise serious questions about India's adherence to Article 14 of the Indian Constitution, which guarantees the right to equality before the law. It is equally important to note that many of those being deported have not been given the opportunity to defend themselves in a court of law, a fundamental right guaranteed under the Indian legal system and by international human rights standards,” pointed out Roy.

This trend of disposing suspected foreigners without due process of law is leaving behind more than just shattered lives--women dropped in foreign fields and families separated without warning.

Apart from weakening the rights guaranteed by the Constitution, the seemingly prejudiced drive is creating fissures in the society.

“You speak Bengali, and you get thrown out… Has it become a crime to speak in Bengali,” Banerjee asked, articulating a disturbing worry gnawing many in the states, particularly the migrant workers.

“I am not going to send my sons to work outside the state. What is the guarantee that he will not be targeted again,” said Mandal.

The apprehension has compelled many migrant workers to return to the state. From Mandal’s Hariharpur village alone around 150 people have migrated to various states. “At least one third of them have returned. Only those who are working in southern Indian states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu feel safe,” said Abdul Gaffar, a panchayat member of the village.

This growing sense of bias is providing a much-needed victim-narrative to Bengali advocacy groups like Bangla Pokkho to sharpen their tirades against so-called outsiders in Bengal, particularly the Hindi-speaking communities.

The ethno-nationalist group, seeking a permanent solution to the harassment faced by Bengalis in BJP-ruled states, is pushing for job reservation for permanent residents of Bengal in both public and private sectors in the state.

It has asked the state government to ensure 100 per cent reservation for West Bengal residents in government jobs and 90 per cent reservation in private sectors. To ensure that Bengali-language test should be mandatory in getting jobs.

To press for its demand, Bangla Pokkho has called for a mass rally in Kolkata on July 29. Besides, the organisation is conducting roadside protest meetings regularly across the state.

“We are not for countering the racial discrimination faced by the Bengalis with similar racism. But if Bengalis are not allowed to work outside the state, they will have to be absorbed in their home state, where most of the jobs are occupied by outsiders,” Bangla Pokkho leader Garga Chatterjee told The Federal.

Bengal is the fourth-largest in-migration destination among Indian states as per the 2011 census data.

There are around 22 lakh workers from Bengal working outside the state, according to the data available with Migrant Workers Welfare Board. Whereas the state hosts around 1.5 crore migrants from other states.

Chatterjee also admitted that the crackdown has given rise to inter-state tension, which is not desirable in India’s federal structure.