In India’s tribal-dominated Jharkhand, BJP labels Muslims as ‘Bangladeshis’

The right-wing party is accused of trying to divide tribal and Muslim votes by raising the bogey of ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’ in a key region of the state.

Sitting at a dusty roadside tea stall with his friends in Bada Sanakad village in the tribal-dominated eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, Abdul Gafur is furious.

“Who says we are Bangladeshi infiltrators? Hear me out, we are the registered citizens of India. To date, God knows how many of our generations have passed away on this land. So, do not insult our ancestors by calling us infiltrators,” said the 46-year-old farmer, as nearly a dozen of his companions, most of them Muslims, nodded in agreement.

Gafur is a Muslim, a community in Jharkhand that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been painting as “Bangladeshi infiltrators” for months as it seeks to unseat a coalition of opposition parties, led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), in the two-phase state assembly election that started on November 13.

Across Jharkhand state, the tribes and Muslims – at 26.2 percent and 14.5 percent respectively, according to the 2011 census – form nearly 41 percent of Jharkhand’s 32 million population.