Eye on Delhi polls, parties vie to outdo rhetoric against ‘illegal’ Bangladeshi immigrants

Even as elections to the Delhi Assembly draw near, the incumbent Aam Aadmi Party and the BJP are on overdrive to show which of them is more anti-immigrant.

The ruling AAP’s anti-immigrant rhetoric was exemplified in December when the Delhi Municipal Corporation directed all government-run schools to stop the enrolment of “illegal Bangladeshi migrant” children, besides informing the police in the event there were “doubts” on such students’ citizenship status.

Earlier the same month, Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena, an appointee of the BJP-led central government, ordered the heads of the civil bureaucracy and the police to conduct a sustained drive to “identify and take action” against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in the sprawling national capital.

To drive home the point that he meant business, the lieutenant governor sought not just “strict adherence to existing laws” but also “timely execution”. Consequently, 14 alleged Bangladeshi illegal immigrants were “deported” to their home country in December after the police used “data analytics” and “ground intelligence” techniques.

Not to be left behind, the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra also rushed to hold out threats of deportation against Bangladeshi immigrants living illegally in Mumbai.

Clearly, just ahead of the elections, both political parties in Delhi have sought to “outbid” each other in their anti-immigrant posturings and rhetoric, which in the past – and in…

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