NEW DELHI: The BJP‘s anti-infiltration poll pitch in Jharkhand reached a crescendo on Monday, the last day of campaigning for the first phase of voting on November 13 in 43 assembly seats. While Union home minister Amit Shah promised a new legislation to prevent transfer of land to infiltrators on their marrying tribal women, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath combined his “Batenge to katenge” warning with Prime Minister Modi’s pitch “Ek rahoge to safe rahoge” to exhort people to stay united. Adityanath also accused the Hemant Soren government of converting the state into a ‘dharmashala’ for Rohingyas and Bangladeshi infiltrators.
Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is the chief architect of BJP’s Jharkhand strategy, has accused the JMM-led coalition in Jharkhand of “patronising infiltrators” and has claimed that this election is being fought to drive out illegal immigrants and protect the Hindus. He called his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren “spokesperson of Bangladeshi infiltrators” and claimed that the ruling JMM was a party of infiltrators.
“Of the total population, around 90 per cent were Hindu and 9.43 per cent were Muslim. The tribal population at that time was 10.34 lakh, which was 44 per cent of the total Hindu population. In the 2011 Census, the Hindu population declined to 67 per cent and the tribal population to 28 per cent in the Santhal Pargana region,” Sarma has claimed.
Earlier, PM Modi in one of his rallies, reinforced this pitch when he said: “Appeasement politics has reached its pinnacle in Jharkhand where the JMM-led coalition is busy supporting Bangladeshi infiltrators. If this continues, tribal population in Jharkhand will shrink. This is a threat to tribal society and the country. This coalition has become a ‘Gushpaithiya Bandhan’ and a ‘Mafia ka Gulam’.”
The JMM and the Congress have countered BJP’s Bangladeshi infiltration pitch with a strong counter offensive. JMM chief and chief minister Hemant Soren accused the BJP of spreading communal poison in the state. He alleged that the BJP-led NDA looted the state for 20 years and claimed it was his government that extended the rights and benefits to people in the past five years.
Hitting back at the Centre’s stand on Bangladeshi infiltration, Soren has asked why former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh was allowed to land in India while the government raised concerns about security. “What internal agreements permit this? The responsibility for border security lies with the Government of India,” he asked at a poll rally.
Countering BJP’s pitch for UCC and NRC, Soren has announced that neither the UCC nor the NRC will be implemented in the state. “Jharkhand will rely solely on the Chotanagpur Tenancy and Santhal Pargana Tenancy Acts. These people (the BJP) are spewing venom and do not care about tribals, natives, Dalits, or backward communities,” the JMM leader said at a rally.
“The BJP is only interested in money and mineral resources of the state. They have nothing to do with ‘Mati, Beti and Roti’. It fixes its agenda by targeting a particular community,” Soren said.
The Congress charge on the last day was led by party chief Mallikarjun Kharge. The Congress chief unleashed a no-holds-barred attack on Prime Minister Modi accusing him of oppressing the opposition, toppling elected governments and purchasing legislators “like goats to feed and feast on them later”.
“Modi-ji believes in toppling governments. He purchases MLA. Unka kaam MLAs ko bakri ke jaise apne pas rakh lena, palna aur fir baad me kaat kar khana hai…(Modi keeps MLAs like goats, feeds them and later feasts on them). This is Modi,” Kharge alleged.
Kharge accused the BJP of dividing the country for which Indira Gandhi faced 36 bullets and Rajiv Gandhi sacrificed his life. “Those dividing the country are teaching ‘deshbhakti’ (patrotism) to us. Wondering whether anyone in BJP-RSS sacrificed life for the country,” the Congress leader said.
The Congress chief took a jibe at PM Modi and said “Modi believes he is not biological” and alleged: “He is a habitual liar who never fulfils his promises… Did any Golden era come to Gujarat?”
“We have been tolerating Modi for 25 years as CM and PM. He supports those who exploit backward people and women… PM Modi is afraid to visit Manipur, I dare him to go there,” the Congress president claimed.
Kharge accused PM Modi of looting coal, iron ore from Jharkhand and said BJP is a party is of snatchers. “They are yet to clear Rs 1.36 lakh crore of Jharkhand in lieu of coal mining,” he said and called the PM “Jhoothon Ka Sardar” (Head of liars).
“Akash me cheel udti hai to bolte hai bhains ud raha hai (If a kite flies in the sky, he says it is a buffalo),” Kharge said taking a dig at the Prime Minister.
Clearly, the BJP’s aggressive pitch on infiltration is a well thought out strategy to woo the tribals, majoirty of whom have backed the JMM in the last two elections. Hemant Soren, on the other hand, is trying to consolidate the tribal votes by playing the victim card ever since he was released on bail after his arrest by Enforcement Directorate in an alleged corruption case.
(With agency inputs)