Close to Bangladesh border, NRC shadow looms over Rajmahal

GUMANI (SAHIBGANJ): Unlike Assam and West Bengal, Jharkhand does not share its borders with Bangladesh.


But in the state’s northeastern districts of Pakur and Sahibganj, the BJP’s poll-promise of conducting a nationwide NRC like exercise to identify and deport illegal immigrants if voted to power is creating a new divide.

Under Rajmahal constituency in Jharkhand’s tribal dominated Santhal Pargana, Pakur and Sahibganj vote on May 19. The eastern settlements in these districts sit next to Murshidabad and Malda districts of West Bengal. Gumani, a block in Sahibganj, is 20 kilometers from Farakka in Malda and less than 50 km from the international border with Bangladesh. Here, more than 80% of the households are Muslims, who have their roots in Bangladesh and West Bengal.

“Many of us moved to India during the 1971 Indo-Pak war . We are living here since. We are Indian citizens and proud Indians like any other,” Enamul Haq, a 40-year-old-tea stall owner at Gumani’s main bazar, told the TOI. Gumani’s population has swelled in the last 15 years. Most of its people are migrant labours and have odd businesses.

The dusty road to Teen Pahar from Littipara in Pakur is dotted with stone quarries. On a hot afternoon, Karim Shaikh sits in his betel shop next to the Teen Pahar railway station, reading a political piece from a Hindi daily. “There are no illegal immigrants here. We are all Indian citizens and valid voters,” is Shaikh’s guarded response . Teen Pahar, a mix of Hindu and Muslim voters, throws up a mixed response.

Subhash Singh, a local in his mid-20s, made an astonishing claim. “One of the suspects in the Burdwan blast (of 2014), who was from Bangladesh, used to live in Teen Pahar and work as a daily wager. Their numbers have swelled. You ask them where they are from, they will mislead you,” Singh said.

Sunil Pramanik, a BJP worker in Udhwa manning party’s Rajmahal candidate Hemlal Murmu’s local election office, has harsher words to say. “The immigrants are coming in through porous borders Bangladesh and settling down here. They are eating away our resources. This needs to stop. Our local MLA (Rajmahal’s Anant Ojha) has been vocal about the issue. The party’s national president Amit Shah, in his rally in Godda recently, also said illegal immigrants will be picked out and deported. We support it,” Pramanik added.

The BJP’s anti-immigrant rant, which is only getting louder in the run-up to polls, has put many families in discomfort. Ajijul Haq, a 60 year-old living in Barharwa, fears changing times. “We are often accused of trading cattle to Bangladesh illegally. Now, they are calling us Bangladeshis. It is very painful to hear all these because we are no less Indians,” he said, sitting outside his poultry shop by the roadside.

In Rajmahal, the BJP is locked in a fight Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM). The Congress, which holds sway over these parts, is a JMM ally this time. Congress leader Alamgir Alam, also the sitting Pakur MLA, accused BJP of breeding hate. “People are settled here since Independence and some of their relatives are still in Bangladesh. But it doesn’t make them immigrants. These claims by BJP are outlandish and aimed to breed hate during polls,” Alam told the TOI.