NEW DELHI:  , Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s closest social alliance has pledged to clear the investment of “illegal ‘ immigrants if his group wins looming votes, in a violent appeal to his group’s Hindu district.
If his party won the municipal elections in the upcoming month’s statewide elections, then every unconstitutional immigrant from neighboring Bangladesh would be expelled from New Delhi.
” The current state government is giving space to illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas,” Shah told an audience of several thousand at Sunday’s ( Jan 26 ) rally.
” Modify the government and we will clear Delhi of all fugitives.”
Indian and Bangladeshi Muslims have a porous borders, and illegal immigration from its eastern neighbor has long been a contentious social issue.
There are no credible estimates of the number of Bangladeshis who have been emigrating from other parts of India to work illegally in Delhi, a city where thousands have flocked over recent years to find employment elsewhere.
The Bharatiya Janata Party ( BJP), which is opposed to Modi and Shah, is accused of using the controversy as a dog whistle against Muslims in order to weaken its Hindu-nationalist support base during elections.
Delhi, a sprawling megacity with more than 30 million residents, has been under the leadership of charismatic chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and his Aam Aadmi Party ( AAP ) for the majority of the past ten years.