‘No information to furnish’ about undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants in Jharkhand, says Centre
The BJP has frequently sought to push unsubstantiated claims of undocumented immigration from Bangladesh as the reason for demographic changes in the state.
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The Union Ministry of Home Affairs has said it has “no information to furnish” about undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants in Jharkhand, The Telegraph reported on Friday.
“Data of such illegal Bangladeshi citizens including their activities during staying in the country is not centrally available”, the Centre said in response to a Right to Information application filed by Ranchi-based social activist Siraj Dutta.
In the run-up to Assembly polls in Jharkhand earlier this year, several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders alleged that “Bangladeshi infiltrators” were marrying Adivasi women to grab their land and property, and to use them as proxies to gain power in the region.
The Hindutva party has frequently sought to push unsubstantiate claims of large-scale undocumented immigration from Bangladesh as the driving force behind demographic changes in the state, particularly in the Santhal Parganas administrative division comprising six districts: Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Pakur.
A Scroll investigation has found such claims to be false.
Dutta, a member of the Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha – a coalition of rights organizations in Jharkhand – shared the home ministry’s responses with the media on Thursday evening, claiming that the BJP had “spread the lie of Bangladeshi infiltration during the Jharkhand elections to polarise religion”.
The Centre’s reply dated November 6 said that the information Dutta sought could be “available with the Bureau of Immigration” and...
