Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday repeated the claims that alleged “infiltrators” were taking over positions in panchayats in the Santhal Pargana, the northeastern region of Jharkhand.
The region comprises six districts: Godda, Deoghar, Dumka, Jamtara, Sahibganj and Pakur. It has traditionally been home to the Santal Adivasi community.
In the run-up to the Assembly elections in Jharkhand, several Bharatiya Janata Party leaders have alleged that “Bangladeshi infiltrators” were marrying Adivasi women to grab their land and property, and to use them as proxies to gain power in the region.
A Scroll investigation has found such claims to be false.
On Sunday, the prime minister claimed that the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha-led government in the state was aiding Bangladeshi and Rohingya “infiltrators” to build its vote banks based on religion.
“In Santhal Pargana, the Adivasi population is decreasing rapidly,” claimed Modi at a public rally in Jamshedpur. “The lands are being grabbed. Infiltrators are taking over positions in panchayats.”
The prime minister claimed that the incidents of crime against women were increasing. “Every Jharkhandi is feeling unsafe because of the infiltrators,” he said. “The JMM [Jharkhand Mukti Morcha] is standing with Bangladeshis and Rohingyas...These infiltrators and extremists are taking over the JMM.”
Modi also claimed that the alleged “infiltration” took place because “the ghost of Congress” entered the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha. “When the ghost of Congress enters any party, then appeasement becomes the only agenda of that party,” he said. “These parties want to form their vote bank based on religion.”
His claims came days after the BJP-led Centre told the Jharkhand High Court on Thursday that “infiltration is assessed to have taken place” in the state through the Sahibganj and Pakur districts, and that support from the state government in addressing the issue had “been less than expected”.
The submission was made in connection with a 2022 public interest litigation filed by a BJP in the state.
The plea claimed that the proportion of Scheduled Tribes in the population of the state’s Santhal Pargana division was declining due to “illegal infiltrators from Bangladesh” who were marrying into Adivasi families to acquire land and influence.
The affidavit submitted to the High Court, through an undersecretary of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, endorsed the petitioner’s claim of a decline in the region’s Adivasi population, but clarified that “linkages to Bangladesh immigrants in any of these land related cases have not been established, so far”.
Despite this, BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Friday sought to leverage the claim by continuing to push claims about “Bangladeshi infiltrators”.
On July 25, Dubey claimed, without evidence, that 100 Adivasi women mukhiyas were married to Muslims.
His claims echoed what Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said at a meeting of the BJP’s Jharkhand unit on July 20. Shah had alleged that “thousands of infiltrators” were marrying Adivasi women to “obtain certificates and buy land”, labelling the practice “love jihad and land jihad”.
Asha Lakra, a BJP politician and member of the National Commission for Scheduled Tribes, had also claimed that ten Adivasi women elected representatives in nine panchayats in Sahibganj were married to “Bangladeshi infiltrators, Rohingya Muslims”.
Scroll has found that four of the 10 cases Lakra cited were false. Three of the women had Adivasi husbands. The fourth, Kapra Tudu, had married outside the Adivasi community, but her husband, Nitin Saha, is Hindu, not Muslim.
In six cases, where Adivasi women panchayat leaders were indeed married to Muslims, all of them told Scroll they had married out of choice. “The Indian constitution gives us the freedom to marry whom we please,” one said.
On August 13, the High Court directed the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha government to identify “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” living in the Santhal Pargana region
The Loktantra Bachao Abhiyan, an Adivasi rights group, had issued a statement on July 29 refuting allegations of demographic changes in Jharkhand due to undocumented migrants from Bangladesh.
“Recently, BJP and its prominent leaders are continuously giving statements that large number of Bangladeshi infiltrators are settling in Jharkhand, Adivasi population is decreasing, Adivasi girls are being married to infiltrators, their land is being grabbed, love jihad, land jihad etc.,” the statement said.
“It is being said that…population of Adivasis in Santhal Pargana has decreased by 16% and that of Muslims has increased by 13%,” the group added. “MP Nishikant Dubey even gave a statement in the Parliament that in 2000, the Adivasi population in Santhal Pargana was 36% and now it is only 26% and Bangladeshi infiltration [Muslims] are responsible for this.”
“All these claims are beyond fact,” the group emphasised.
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