Massacre of Muslims darkens debate on migration

Narendra Modi speaks during a political rally in Mirzapur yesterday.

Reuters/Narayanguri

From his hiding place in a cowshed, Sefaqul Islam watched as masked gunmen moved through his village, shot women and children dead with automatic rifles and tossed wounded survivors into the blazing remains of their homes.

The cattle herder’s sister and seven-year-old nephew were among 41 Muslims killed by suspected tribal militants last week in Assam, the latest atrocity against people accused of being immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

“We will never go back to the village,” said Islam, as he and dozens of Narayanguri’s traumatised inhabitants erected bamboo-framed tents on the opposite bank of the Beki river.

Police and local residents said three separate attacks were carried out by militants from the ethnic Bodo community as punishment for Muslims who failed to support their local candidate in the election, which is still going on across India.

The worst outbreak of communal violence in the northeastern region since 2012 has compounded fears among Muslims living along the India-Bangladesh border who feel they are being singled out by the man widely expected to be India’s next prime minister - Narendra Modi.

The Hindu nationalist candidate, campaigning mainly on a ticket of economic growth, has ratcheted up rhetoric against illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, saying they should have their “bags packed” ready to be sent home should he win.

“The infiltrators have to go, go and go,” Modi said on Wednesday in West Bengal, which also borders Bangladesh. “Don’t you think they have made your life miserable?”

A few miles from Narayanguri, in an area prone to religious violence, Modi made a similar speech a few days before the massacres, warning that Bangladeshis were taking over the state.

While there is no evidence Modi’s words had any bearing on the latest bloodshed in a long-running conflict, his rivals say the speeches, which continued after the attacks, risk alienating many in India’s Muslim minority of 150mn people.

Modi has distinguished between economic immigrants from Bangladesh and Hindu refugees, whom he calls “family” escaping religious persecution in the Muslim-majority nation.

The prospect of an Indian prime minister forcing Muslims of Bangladeshi origin to return home has also raised alarm bells in Dhaka, where the government said it would resist any such move.

“If they do it, the relationship between the two countries will be jeopardised, it will be damaged,” said Bangladesh Commerce Minister Tofail Ahmed.

“India, being a ... big country, a democratic country, a secular country, cannot take such a position.”

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which opinion polls suggest will lead the next government after a staggered, five-week election that ends on Monday, denies stirring tensions in Assam and has firmly condemned the killings.

Party leaders says it has every right to address what it says is an issue of national security, because immigration is part of a bid by Bangladesh to expand its borders informally.

“This is a fight between ethnic people and suspected foreigners who have captured our land and our jobs,” said Ranjit Kumar Das, a BJP legislator in Assam’s state assembly who lives in Barpeta Road, the closest town to the massacre. “(The violence) is the natural outcome,” he said. “If there is no permanent solution it will happen again and again.”

The BJP also accuses the Congress party, which rules in Assam but looks set to be toppled from power on a national level, of failing to prevent the violence despite warning signs that trouble was brewing after voting took place there.

For its part, Congress says Modi is playing a divisive and dangerous political game in Assam, and the row has thrust a local issue on to the national stage during an election. Reaction to Modi’s speeches on social media shows people are listening. Posts under the #deportbangladeshis tag were at the top of Twitter’s trend list in India on Monday.

For most of his tireless, 10-month election campaign, Modi, 63, has focussed on his credentials as an efficient manager capable of ending the worst economic slowdown in decades. But he has failed to shake off doubts that he and his party are prejudiced against Muslims and will favour the Hindu majority at their expense.

Modi camp confident as polls near finale

AFP/New Delhi

India’s right-wing opposition voiced growing confidence yesterday of a decisive victory in a marathon election as potential partners distanced themselves from the favourite to become prime minister, Narendra Modi.

“There’s no need to wait until the 16th as the people have already decided,” a bullish Modi told supporters a week ahead of the announcement of results from the world’s biggest general election. “It will be a Modi government this time. Good days are ahead of you,” he added in a rally in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, which will host part of the final round of voting on Monday.

Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is widely expected to win the most seats, but is unlikely to gain a majority on its own in the 543-seat parliament.

Some analysts are predicting the party will have to find new allies in order to form a government.

Several potential allies have been distancing themselves from Modi during the final days of the election contest.

But Modi’s top aide Amit Shah quashed any suggestion yesterday that his boss might step aside after the elections for a compromise candidate that would be acceptable to other parties who have cool relations with Modi.

“Although the ruling Congress party is expected to be ousted after a decade in power, Modi’s hopes of becoming premier could still be thwarted if leaders of powerful regional parties refuse to do business with him.

One potential partner, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader Mayawati, told reporters yesterday she would not countenance any deal with Modi. “I want to make it clear that BSP will not extend any kind of support to NDA at any cost,” said Mayawati, a champion of India’s lower caste dalits, whose party currently has 21 MPs and has its power base in Uttar Pradesh.