"There is a Bangladeshi type of language…some kind of Bengali sounding language in which they were shouting slogans," said Medha Lal of the New Delhi Police in a TV interview.
While trying to identify the perpetrators of the communal rioting in Jahangirpuri on Saturday, Lal used a common dog whistle, conflating Bengali and specifically the Bengali Muslim residents of Jahangirpuri with Bangladeshi citizens, reported Scroll.in.
And he was not the only one; powerful politicians used the same tack. This xenophobic dog whistling was at least partly used to justify collective punishment in Jahangirpuri.
This substantiates how propaganda circulates involving people of Bangladeshi origin in India.
Clashes broke out between Muslims and Hindus last week near a mosque and temple in Jahangirpuri, injuring several people, including policemen.
At least 20 people were later arrested in this connection, according to Reuters.
But a Scroll.in article claims that none of them have been identified as being from Bangladesh.
The authorities demolished illegal structures in the area -- inhabited by small Hindu traders and Bengali Muslims from West Bengal who work as waste collectors -- on Wednesday. The country's top court on Thursday asked authorities to halt demolitions until further notice.
Conflating Bengali-speaking Indian Muslim citizens with Bangladeshi immigrants or bracketing rural dialects from West Bengal as something foreign has a long history with major ramifications for the safety of Bengali Muslims across India.
And this trend is only becoming stronger as Hindutva becomes more powerful across India.
After the communal violence on April 16, a number of mainstream politicians used xenophobic dog whistles to tar the residents of Jahangirpuri. The next day, New Delhi BJP President Adarsh Gupta alleged that so-called illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants should be blamed for the violence and must be evicted from Delhi. The Aam Aadmi Party took much the same line, accusing “Bangladeshi and Rohingyas” of causing violence.
Right-wing media followed suit. Hindi newspaper Dainik Jagran even quoted anonymous sources alleging that one lakh Bangladeshis have settled in Jahangirpuri. Reacting to Sunday’s demolition drive, Gupta said on television that the BJP would continue with their mission to send Bangladeshis home.
Misrecognition of Bengali Muslims as Bangladeshis, and these days even as Rohingyas, is not a new phenomenon. Medha Lal is not the first and certainly would not be the last policeman to ignore the fact that there exists a state called West Bengal with nearly 30 million Muslims who have Bengali as their mother tongue. In fact, not only the police, such ignorance exists even among regular citizens.
The discourse around Bengali Muslims as undocumented Bangladeshis reached its zenith during the passing of the Citizenship Amendment Act in 2019 and the politics around the proposed National Register of Citizens. In West Bengal, BJP leaders were clear that the law was aimed at Bengali Muslims living in the state. The usual charge levelled was that undocumented migrants from Bangladesh had obtained identification documents like Aadhar cards or voter cards with the help of sympathetic governments in Kolkata.
