Ahead of Jharkhand polls, BJP MP maintains claim of ‘Bangladesh infiltration’ in Santhal Parganas

MP of the Bharatiya Janata Party Nishikant Dubey on Sunday claimed that “Bangladesh infiltrators” were responsible for the allegedly disproportionate increase in the share of Muslims in the population of Santhal Parganas, ANI reports.

Dubey also repeated his party’s claim that the share of Adivasis in the region’s population is declining due to infiltration by Bangladeshis. He did not provide evidence to support the allegation.

The administrative unit of Santhal Parganas comprises six districts: Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Pakur.

The Union Government in September he admitted to the High Court that the share of Adivasis in the region’s population had declined, but did not attribute this to “infiltration” from Bangladesh. The National Democratic Alliance led by the BJP is in power at the Centre.

Despite this, Dubey – representing Godda constituency – said on Sunday: “In 1951, the Muslim population (in the region) was 9%, today it is 24%. The number of Muslims across the country has increased by 4% and in our Santhal Pargana by 15%. These 11% are infiltrators from Bangladesh and the Jharkhand government accepts it.”

Dubey said neither the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha nor the Congress is concerned “even if the share of adivasis in the population declines, if adivasis die or if adivasis are displaced.” He claimed that for the BJP, this is an issue of national importance and not an electoral issue.

The assembly elections in Jharkhand will be held in two phases on November 13 and 20. The votes will be counted on November 23. The BJP is seeking to defeat the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-Congress coalition that came to power in the state in 2019.

In recent years, the Hindutva party has often sought to push claims of large-scale illegal immigration from Bangladesh as a driving force behind demographic change in the region.

In 2022, a BJP worker from Jharkhand filed a petition in the Supreme Court, alleging that the percentage of Scheduled Tribes in the division was declining due to “illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators” who married into Adivasi families to gain land and influence. AND Scroll investigation found such claims false.

On September 12, the Center notified the court in a statement that there has indeed been a “decline in the tribal population” in the area. While the government stated that undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants have been pouring into the area since independence, it also highlighted other possible reasons for the decline in the percentage of Adivasi population.

“The decline in tribal population due to outward migration, low birth rate among tribals, conversion to Christianity and other reasons also requires (sic) assessment,” the home ministry said in a statement, according to a statement Indian Express.

The government said there were cases of land acquisition by Muslims due to loopholes in land transfer laws and that there was an argument between Adivasis and Muslims on this issue in July.

“However, no link with Bangladeshi immigrants has been established so far in any of these land-related cases,” it said.

Dubey has made similar claims without evidence on earlier occasions as well. In July, he claimed that 100 Adivasi mukhi women in the state were married to Muslims.

In a similar vein, Asha Lakra, a BJP politician and member of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, alleged that 10 elected Adivasi women representatives in nine panchayats in Sahibganj were married to “Bangladesh infiltrators, Rohingya Muslims”.

Scroll stated that four of the 10 cases cited by Lakra were false. Three of these women had Adivasi husbands. The fourth married outside the Adivasi community, but her husband is a Hindu, not a Muslim.

In the six cases where Adivasi panchayat leaders were indeed Muslim wives, they said all of them Scroll they married by choice.