With crucial West Bengal and Assam assembly election due next year, the UP government’s plan for “detention centers” for Ghuspaithye is likely to become political weapon for the BJP in these poll-bound states. What illegal immigration is to Republican’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) group in US, infiltration is to BJP. For both it is political ammunition, writes M Hasan
Lucknow, December 4: The world is in grip of massive movement of population-both legal and illegal. The problem is gigantic from remote corners in UP to far off areas of UP and Bihar, Assam, West Bengal and other regions. If the US has announced to permanently pause migration from all Third World countries, UP has announced to set up “detention centers” at all divisional headquarters to detain all unidentified illegal immigrants (Ghuspaithye-infiltrator) from Bangladesh, Myanmar and other neighbouring countries.
For the US millions of immigrants have become “illegal and disruptive populations” and the administration has pledged to “end all federal benefits and subsidies to noncitizens”. The US government has also proclaimed that US citizenship should be stripped from naturalized immigrants “who undermine domestic tranquility”, and called for deporting those the government deemed “non-compatible with western civilization”. The illegal immigrants’ crisis is equally threatening Europe. India has also recently witnessed large number of deportations from the US when the handcuffed Indian youth, who were “Ghuspaithye” in US, were detained and flown back to Delhi.
The spotlight has shifted to UP as the Adityanath Yogi government has also decided to launch similar exercise to identify such people and put them in detention centers till their cases are decided. These illegal immigrants would be lodged in these centers until legal verification, judicial process and repatriation to their countries. The illegal immigration from Bangladesh and Myanmar was BJP’s major political issue Seemanchal area of Bihar during just-concluded assembly election. During the Bihar elections the Union Home Minister Amit Shah had repeatedly announced to throw out these infiltrators. And the process has started in right earnest in UP, which is set to go to poll in 2027.
With crucial West Bengal and Assam assembly election due next year, the UP government’s plan for “detention centers” for Ghuspaithye is likely to become political weapon for the BJP in these poll-bound states. What illegal immigration is to Republican’s MAGA (Make America Great Again) group in US, infiltration is to BJP. For both it is political ammunition.
Addressing nation from Red Fort on August 15, 2025 the Prime Minister Narendra Modi said “today I want to alert the country about a concern, a challenge. Under a well-thought out conspiracy, the demography of the country is being changed. Seeds of a new crisis are being sown. These ‘ghuspaithiye’ (intruders) are snatching the livelihood of the youth of my country, these ‘ghuspaithiye’ are targeting the sisters and daughters of my country, this will not be tolerated. These ‘ghuspaithiye’ are misleading the innocent tribals and grabbing their land. This country will not tolerate this,” Modi said. The prime minister said his government has decided to launch a high-powered demography mission to tackle this crisis.
“From the ramparts of Red Fort today, I want to say that we have decided to start a high-powered demography mission. This mission will definitely do its work in a well thought out manner in set time frame to deal with the grave crisis that is looming over India and we are moving ahead in that direction.”Modi warned that when demographic changes take place, especially in the border areas, they create a national security crisis.
The political tone and tenor has already set in West Bengal. The fault lines were vividly exposed during Mamata Banerjee’s anti-SIR rally on 4 November, which the BJP quickly dismissed as a “Jamaat-sponsored” or “Ghuspaithiye Bachao” demonstration, a veiled reference to alleged Muslim illegal migrants. Meanwhile, the CPI(M) has mobilised its cadres around the right to freely sing Rabindranath Tagore’s “Amar Sonar Bangla”, recently criticised by Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as the “national anthem of Bangladesh”.
The BJP’s narrative, however, overlooks a significant demographic detail: a large section of those regarded as illegal migrants are Hindus. Among them are the Matua community, a Scheduled Caste Hindu sect with an estimated 2.5 crore followers, including about 1.2–1.5 crore registered voters. BJP leaders in West Bengal have claimed that nearly two crore ineligible voters may be on the rolls, a figure that makes the SIR exercise far more complex than a mere identification of Muslim migrants.
However, addressing a gathering in Bhuj (Gujarat) on November 21 Shah said “today, I want to make it very clear that we will deport every single ‘ghuspaithiye’ (infiltrator) from this country, one by one. This is the resolve of the Modi government to deport each and every infiltrator from the country. “Who will be the chief minister of any state in the country, or who will be the prime minister, is a decision that can only be made by the citizens of India. Infiltrators do not have the right to pollute our democratic system and influence our democratic decisions,” Shah said. “I also want to warn those political parties which are engaged in protecting these infiltrators. The Bihar election was the mandate of the people of the country. And that mandate is against the presence of infiltrators in our country,” Shah said.
(M Hasan is former Chief of Bureau, Hindustan Times Lucknow)
