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<\/p>\nRabia Mayet | rabiamayet@radioislam.co.za<\/p>\n
29 July 2025<\/p>\n
2-minute read<\/p>\n
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In its latest crackdown drawing widespread condemnation from the rest of the world, India is unlawfully expelling hundreds of Bengali citizens, many of them Indian nationals, to Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
Meenakshi Ganguly, beauty director for South-Asia at Human Rights Watch, stated that the Indian government has \u201clong expressed concern about irregular migration from Bangladesh.\u201d They have now chosen to expel ethnic Bengali speakers, particularly Muslims, without due process and without allowing these individuals to appeal these decisions or to seek legal counsel.<\/p>\n
The rounding up and detaining of \u201cBengali speaking Muslim migrant workers has occurred mostly in BJP governed states,\u201d Ganguly reiterated. Indian nationals who are sent across the border to Bangladesh must wait for family members to establish their identities before being brought back into India. She said that this the procedure must be handled in \u201ca humane way,\u201d following the correct process.<\/p>\n
Reports have even come in stating that elderly people are being forced across the border at gunpoint, specifically those from Assam State. In Assam State, the Indian government had initiated a \u201cdeeply flawed\u201d program to verify the ethnicity of individuals. The process has been appealed but the government continues to detain people and send them across the border.<\/p>\n
The ruling BJP party primarily believes in a \u201cHindu majoritarian ideology,\u201d pushing forth anti-Muslim sentiment and the greater political agenda that Hindu people and Hindu rights need to be protected. Muslim Bengali speakers are being targeted, whether Indian nationalists or from Bangladesh. \u00a0With millions of Bengali speaking Muslims in India, \u201cjust to be Muslim and a Bengali speaker does not mean that they\u2019re automatically Bangladeshi,\u201d Ganguly emphasized.<\/p>\n
Human Rights Watch is calling for the Indian government to be transparent about identifying and returning irregular migrants; with individuals being given the opportunity to prove their identities and seek legal counsel in a better way. Other countries must also agree to accepting their citizens back. \u201cThe world needs to understand that irregular immigration is the reality of today,\u201d Ganguly concluded.<\/p>\n