Barhait/Rajmahal/Pakur/Dumka, Jharkhand: The muddy waters ran deep, disappearing into a blanket of smog hanging over the Ganga in Jharkhand’s Rajmahal. Men and women, many of whom travelled dozens of kilometres, took a dip in the cold waters on the occasion of Kartik Poornima.
Beyond the river lies West Bengal’s Malda, which shares a border with Bangladesh. It is this peripheral assembly constituency that is believed to be the “entry point” for Bangladeshi illegal immigrants whom the BJP pejoratively refers to as “infiltrators”, and has placed them at the centre of its election campaign in Jharkhand.
Standing on the banks of the Ganga, Vinod Kumar Verma, who works at a private company, said that the issue of alleged Bangladeshi infiltration is not new in Jharkhand.
“Forget Rajmahal, this issue has been raised since the formation of Bangladesh itself. Since the formation of the state of Jharkhand in 2000, the BJP has been in power for 17 years,” he said.
“If this was such a big issue, why didn’t they raise it all this time? Health and education are the big issues that need to be spoken about. If they are so invested in infiltration, then what have they done about it?”
This story was originally published in thewire.in. Read the full story here.
