DC Edit | Stop Using ‘Infiltrators’ Issue In Poll Campaign

Elections are occasions for political parties to present their points of view before the people and appeal for their votes, but some find them an occasion to drive home a message of hatred between people. Othering of people under one pretext or another is sadly an effective ploy that parties with communal agendas have been successfully implementing to strengthen their side and ride to power.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP are no strangers to this tactic, either, as they have in fact perfected it and have been successfully deploying it from the start. Mr Modi’s statements directed at so-called “infiltrators” in West Bengal, which is going to elect an Assembly in a few months, are aimed to portray the state as a safe haven for Bangladeshi illegal immigrants who cross the border into Indian territory for various reasons, mostly economic.

It is curious that the Prime Minister, who sits at the top of a mammoth mechanism protecting the border, forgets his position and blames the state’s politicians who have very little role in it. It may be remembered that the Border Security Force tasked to guard the border with Bangladesh comes under the Union home ministry which works under the overall policy guidelines of the Prime Minister and hence the responsibility for lapses, if any, must be laid at the Prime Minister’s table.

Mr Modi’s averments would have an element of credibility had he taken steps to stop infiltration, identified law breakers and sent them back to their homes. Using them as a bogey to attack political enemies during electioneering does not behove him.

Mr Modi has hinted at a dangerous possibility, too. In his eagerness to appeal to the hardliners within his party, he has promised to take “big action” against “infiltration” after the BJP comes to power in the state and cited the example of the West. If Mr Modi has in mind the model of US President Donald Trump and his actions against illegal aliens, then it will set a dangerous precedent for India.

The illegal, even murderous, tactics officials of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement of that country employ against those whom they suspect are undocumented people have raised a storm for they negate every single value the US claims it represents. The murder of a citizen and the torture of even American Indians under questionable circumstances have raised a big stink over the legality and credentials of the very drive Mr Trump has initiated. India cannot afford to witness a similar unleashing of governmental highhandedness here.

The Prime Minister is used to referring to the term, “demographic change”, while campaigning in border states but this time he has even referred to “changes in appearances and habits of people” and “differences in languages and tones”. These are incendiary words. No one will have an objection to the Union government moving legally and systematically and stop infiltration, but attempts to put certain sections of the people under the cloud of suspicion and pitting one group of citizens against another are equally unacceptable.

Infiltration and its impact are issues of national importance; reducing them to electioneering topics is a disservice to the country.