This infiltration from the India-Bangladesh border has become a key part of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s strategy for the parliamentary elections in the eastern state of Jharkhand, and this has been evident over the past month or so. Several senior party leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, during their campaigns in Jharkhand, made a strong speech on the issue of infiltration.

That the saffron party would apply the same strategy in the next assembly elections in West Bengal and Assam, due in 2026, was indicated at separate events by Shah in West Bengal and Sarma in Guwahati on October 27. a coordinated move aimed at amplifying the problem of infiltration into public discourse in the two states, which share borders with Bangladesh and where illegal immigration has long been a problem.

The BJP sees West Bengal as the last frontier to capture in its political rise in eastern India. Shah, making his first visit to West Bengal since the previous state elections in which the BJP performed below average by securing fewer seats compared to 2019, flagged the topic of cross-border infiltration. Inaugurating a newly constructed passenger terminal and cargo movement gate ‘Maitri Dwar’ at Petrapole in India, opposite Benapole in Bangladesh, on the morning of October 27, Shah urged the voters of West Bengal to bring the BJP to power during the 2026 legislative elections to put an end to it. to infiltration.

Hours later, at a BJP-organized event in Kolkata, Shah raised the issue once again, accusing West Bengal’s Mamata government of being involved in “state-sponsored infiltration” and in corruption. He stressed the need to elect a BJP government with a two-thirds majority to resolve these issues. There are two important aspects to Shah’s remarks: (1) he supported the lack of a legal framework for cross-border movements of people which led to infiltrations; and (2) he framed the issue of infiltration in terms of peace, development and better relations with Bangladesh. “Peace in West Bengal can only be established when support for illegal infiltration ceases and ceases completely, which will pave the way for a new era of partnership with neighboring countries,” he added.

The same day in Guwahati, Sarma told a press conference that Indian states bordering Bangladesh needed to coordinate with each other and with the Border Security Force (BSF) to foil infiltration attempts following the political unrest in the neighboring country. He said that even though the BJP-led governments of Assam and adjacent Tripura are already working with the BSF, the Mamata government must cooperate and identify the infiltrators as those sent back to Bangladesh from Assam and Tripura can return via Bengal.

While the BJP dispensations in Assam and Tripura deal easily with the BSF to check infiltration from across the border, things are not going so easily in West Bengal where the Mamata administration and the Border guards often disagree on the issue. The BJP accuses the Bengal government of not adequately cooperating with the BSF to check the infiltration of Muslim ‘vote bank’ politics; The BJP also charges the TMC with sheltering the infiltrators. The TMC says it is the duty of the BSF, controlled by the central government, to ensure that no infiltration takes place. The Mamata government had opposed extending the BSF’s jurisdiction deeper into the state for its operations against cross-border crimes. The BSF suspects that those who indulge in these crimes often find protection in the state.

Infiltration probably occupied a substantial part of Shah and Sarma’s recent speeches because the BJP (at least in Assam) was not really happy with the recent decision of the Constitutional Bench of the Supreme Court. The judgment confirmed the validity of Section 6A of the Citizenship Act, 1955, which gives a cut-off period for granting Indian citizenship to those who migrated from the erstwhile East Pakistan and later Bangladesh. The Assam chief minister has made no secret of his desire to set the cut-off year at 1951 for identifying illegal immigrants rather than March 25, 1971, the day the Bangladesh Liberation War began.

The BJP is using the issue of infiltration as a political tool to project its Hindutva theme. However, Sarma claimed on October 27 that those trying to enter India illegally were Rohingyas and not Hindus and that “the perception that Hindu Bengalis are trying to come is wrong.” He said: “The religion of the infiltrators does not concern us much. Our goal is that if someone comes illegally, he or she should be turned away. » Even if such a religiously neutral statement by Sarma is politically gratifying for the BJP in Ahom-majority Assam, the challenge for the party is how to reconcile it with its Hindutva party. Therein lies the party’s dilemma.

Pallab Bhattacharya is a special correspondent for the Daily Star. He writes from New Delhi, India.

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author.

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