Category: Rights

In New India, Mourning the Dead Is a Crime Against the Living

Even as people die in preventable tragedies, the government wants us to focus on the ‘positive’ – that so many people are alive.

At least 18 people were killed in a stampede at a railway station in the country’s capital due to government negligence.

But we Indians seem to have forgotten how to write prose. As British historian Ralph Fox once said, prose is the art of calling things by their true names. Humanity invented language to reveal the truth, but over time, it has been used as a veil to obscure it. In India, for the past decade, language has been wielded not to tell the truth but to hide it.

Rumours are branded as truth and truth is defamed as rumour. For instance, the spokesperson of the Indian railways initially dismissed the stampede as a rumour and the country’s largest news agency broadcast this falsehood. But they were not alone in this deception. A shopkeeper claimed that all arrangements were perfect, the platform was empty and the stampede occurred only because people began pushing each other. It seems that we no longer wish to confront unpleasant truths.

The government attempted to explain the tragedy by attributing it to a “sudden rush”. But no one questioned whether this crowd had truly gathered out of nowhere. Was this not a disaster waiting to happen? Was it so difficult to foresee, given the unusual surge in ticket sales, that the platforms would be crowded beyond capacity? Why were general-class tickets issued without regard for the platform’s limits? Why was the correlation between the number of trains and ticket sales ignored? Why could the government, which digs up roads and hammers nails into them to block farmers from entering Delhi, not prevent a crowd from gathering on a railway platform?

On the day of the stampede, my colleague was on his way to attend a seminar in Varanasi. When he reached New Delhi station via the metro, he encountered a massive crowd. The metro’s exit doors relented under pressure. People shouted, “Ganga Maiya ki Jai” and began pushing each other in a frenzy. Terrified, my friend canceled his trip and returned home. If an ordinary citizen could sense disaster, why did the police and other agencies fail to anticipate it?

This crowd did not gather spontaneously. For months, the prime minister, several chief ministers and various governments have been urging Hindus to attend the Kumbh Mela. Large posters and hoardings inviting people to the Kumbh have adorned the walls of government buildings. Volunteers have been encouraging Hindus not to miss this “once-in-a-lifetime opportunity” to earn spiritual merit. Prominent figures have been posting pictures of themselves bathing in the “holy” waters of the Ganga, reinforcing the idea that one’s “Hinduness” is proven by attending the Kumbh. Reports of roads leading to Allahabad being choked for days should have alerted authorities to the unprecedented traffic. Why were no arrangements made to manage it?

After attempts to dismiss the tragedy failed, its severity was downplayed as “some chaos” that was “under control.” The railway minister also attempted to obscure the truth with misleading statements. Eventually, they admitted to the stampede and the resulting deaths. But now the blame is being shifted to the public’s impatience: How could it possibly handle such an “unruly crowd”?

A lesson ignored

This is not the first time such negligence has occurred. Five years ago, during the initial days of the Covid-19 pandemic, the prime minister abruptly announced a lockdown without preparing for its consequences. Factories closed, construction halted and eateries shut down. Daily wage workers and labourers suddenly lost their livelihoods. The government made no provisions to sustain them during this period. What were they expected to do?

The morning after the announcement, workers from Delhi and other metros began walking back to their villages. At the time, the government claimed it was not responsible for transporting them. The workers were labeled “irresponsible” and accused of potentially spreading the virus. A Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP even said, “Why are migrants leaving Delhi? For want of money or food? No. Just irresponsible. There is no money or jobs waiting for them back home. It’s to utilise their forced ‘chutti’ to catch up with their families or errands back home. The gravity of the situation hasn’t dawned on them.”

While lakhs of people walked thousands of kms, the government remained a silent spectator.

A petition was filed in the Supreme Court urging the government to provide relief to the workers. The government lied under oath, claiming no workers were on the roads. While the nation watched thousands of workers trudging home on television, the court saw only what the government wanted it to see.

The government displayed similar incompetence during demonetisation. Images of endless queues outside banks were met with mockery from government supporters, who asked why people couldn’t endure a few hours in line when soldiers stand guard on borders for weeks.

Before the Delhi railway stampede, there was a stampede at the Kumbh Mela. The exact death toll remains unknown, just as the true number of Covid-19 deaths. The government and its supporters grow uneasy at the mention of death, accusing critics of spreading negativity. They insist we focus on the “positive” – that so many people are still alive. Those who have survived this government’s policies and politics should be grateful – not to their stars but to the government.

Whatever the government says, it is disheartening to see society accept this as its fate. One must say that this is predominantly a Hindu society. Has a significant population of Hindus convinced themselves that after centuries, “Hindu Raj” has returned to India? Are we to ignore trivial matters like human lives in pursuit of a grander objective – the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra? Hindus seem to have surrendered their rights as citizens, reducing themselves to subjects at the mercy of their rulers.

Perhaps we should prepare for a new law: mourning the dead will be deemed a crime against the living.

Freebie Charge Is an Assault on Social Welfare and Rights of Citizens

The word ‘freebies’ reflects the class privilege of those using the term, including members of the judiciary, industrialists, business executives, journalists or people occupying high positions who deride social welfare schemes even as they themselves receive all kinds of benefits.

During a hearing on civil writ petitions pertaining to provision of adequate shelter facilities to homeless persons in urban areas, Supreme Court Justice B.R. Gavai chose to criticise the practice of freebies for harming the national work ethic.

He reportedly said: “Unfortunately, because of these freebies, which come on the anvil of the elections…some Ladki Bahin and some other scheme, people are not willing to work…Because of the freebies in Maharashtra, which were just announced prior to the elections, the agriculturalists are not getting labourers. When everybody is getting free rations at home, why would they want to work?”

Justice Gavai described homeless people as “parasites” and their demands for decent shelters, rations, and health as freebies on the assumption that they are unwilling to work. He cites no evidence for this claim. Nor does he seek to find whether the jobs being offered provide decent wages and even then people prefer not to work. His criticism also does not cite any evidence to show that cash transfers prevent people from working since they can just sit at home, do nothing and collect their freebie. These comments are based on anecdotal and personal experience. Contrary to this, economists have found no systematic evidence that cash transfer programmes reduce the propensity to work or the overall number of hours worked for by either men or women.

To think that a monthly cash transfer of Rs. 2000-3000 is enough to make the poor lazy defies logic and reason. He also singled out the policy of free rations as a reason for labourers not going to work. But the free ration given to an individual is just 5 kgs for the entire month and that too primarily cereals. This is less than the average individual cereal consumption in India estimated to be 9 kg a month. If labourers are indeed not going to work, this is not because of free rations, they are just not getting decent wages for agricultural work. The latest Economic Survey points to stagnating or decreased rural wages.

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has found that there is a stark lack of decent employment opportunities in India. Cash transfers have been offered because severe unemployment afflicts the capitalist world, including India. Employment generation is a big concern of the Indian economy. It is not that people don’t want to work, if that was the case, lakhs of people wouldn’t be queuing up to apply for the small number of public sector jobs advertised now and then by the government. For example, for a total of about 1.4 lakh vacancies for various categories of staff in Indian Railways, more than 2.40 crore candidates had applied in 2020. Railways screened 22.5 lakh applicants to recruit 18,799 assistant loco pilots in 2024. Air India recruitment drive for airport loaders led to a stampede-like situation as a massive crowd of job seekers thronged the Mumbai airport in July 2024.

Similarly, huge numbers of workers are registered under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGS). As of October 2023, approximately 13.2 crore active workers were registered under this scheme, while the total number of registered workers is much higher. This shows that people are not reluctant about seeking productive labour or agricultural jobs when they become available. Yet, the budget for MGNREGS has not been increased, leading to pending wages and suppression of work. This scheme was allocated Rs 86,000 crore in the 2025-26 Union Budget. This is the same amount as the 2024-25 budget allocation.

Many of the so-called freebies are a constitutional requirement for social and economic justice in a country that is ranked among the most unequal countries in the world. The World Inequality Database shows that economic inequality in India was higher than the colonial period, and termed it as a Billionaire Raj. However, the ruling party has repeatedly dismissed the concerns of growing economic disparity by giving a corrosively communal colour to wealth redistribution as witnessed in during the toxic election campaign for the Lok Sabha elections last year. India has not even been able to ensure that all its people receive basic food and nutrition, healthcare, housing, educational access, etc. In most other countries, universal access to reasonable quality goods and services that constitute basic needs is seen as the responsibility of the state, these are not viewed as freebies. We need to ensure basic needs for all citizens by shifting to a system of constitutionally guaranteed economic rights which can be financed by wealth and inheritance taxes.

More importantly, if the political process compels parties to respond to basic needs, this must be welcomed, especially in the case of women related schemes. Political parties may manipulate a right as a benefit for electoral considerations. But to accuse women of not being willing to work because of modest cash transfers or welfare schemes is doing injustice to women’s work. It is also factually incorrect as a large majority of women are already working, doing unpaid work in the domestic sphere and also often unpaid work in family enterprises, including in agricultural operations. According to a State Bank of India (SBI) survey of 2023-24, if the extent of women’s unpaid work is monetised, it would amount to a mammoth 22 lakh crore rupees a year, which would be around seven per cent of the GDP that year. Thus it is not that women are not working, but that they are working without any remuneration.

The word freebies reflects the class privilege of those using the term, including members of the judiciary, industrialists, business executives, journalists or people occupying high positions who deride social welfare schemes as freebies even as they themselves receive all kinds of benefits.

The government recently announced a slew of extra retirement benefits for Chief Justices of India and Supreme Court judges (not to be confused with freebies). Similarly, tax cuts given to the corporate sector are not to be confused with freebies. Even as many welfare schemes are seen as wasteful, there is predictable silence over the billions of rupees worth of bad loans, owed to the public sector banks, being written off the banks’ balance sheets.

There can’t be a better example of freebies than the write-offs of non-performing assets (NPAs) of large corporate loans in the last few years paid for by Indian taxpayers.

The main reason for cash transfer is simply this: the Indian economy under the current regime is not generating enough jobs. It is attempting to acquire political power without producing large employment opportunities, thus having to offer cash transfers to the people. But these transfers are inadequate compensation for the scarcity of employment and minimum wages. If transfers are to be stopped then the government must provide decent jobs to people in lieu of transfers. The failure to do so has made a vast majority of Indians pessimistic about joblessness in the country, according to the Mood of the Nation Survey of February 2025 conducted by India Today and C-Voter. Most of those surveyed felt that the unemployment situation in the country was very serious or somewhat serious. In this dismal situation, the aforesaid remarks by the highest court on social welfare schemes, constitute a political and ideological assault on the rights of the working people and the welfare state envisioned in the Constitution.

Zoya Hasan is Professor Emerita, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University.

How Fact-Checkers and Internet Sleuths Proved USAID’s Long History With Modi Government

AltNews cofounder Mohammed Zubair and one Aditya Ojha have dug up a series of public posts and releases by those in the Narendra Modi government, and its agencies and bodies, that go on to show that it worked pretty closely with USAID.

New Delhi: The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party has raised questions over “foreign influence” and “deep state” ever since the newly constituted Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in the US, headed by billionaire Elon Musk, announced that the US would cancel the allocation of $21 million to improve voter turnout in India.

Because DOGE did not mention in its post on X which Indian body used to receive the funds, BJP’s ‘IT cell’ chief Amit Malviya and former minister Rajeev Chandrashekhar were among those who claimed that the money paved the way for the US to tamper with India’s electoral process.

BJP commentators drew attention to a memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2012 between the Election Commission and the International Foundation for Electoral Systems, which was a partner of the Consortium for Elections and Political Process Strengthening to point fingers at Congress, which was in power at the Union government till 2014.

Member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister Sanjeev Sanyal said, “Would love to find out who received the US$21mn spent to improve ‘voter turnout in India'”, adding that “USAID is the biggest scam in human history.”

USAID or the United States Agency for International Development was set up by John F. Kennedy as an independent agency of the US government to administer civilian foreign aid and development assistance globally.

However, fact-checkers like Mohammed Zubair (co-founder of AltNews) and one Aditya Ojha who posts on X under the handle @thispodcastguy have dug up a series of public posts by those in the Narendra Modi government, and its agencies and bodies, that go on to show that it worked pretty closely with USAID.

Zubair posted a tweet by the national broadcaster All India Radio, announcing a new partnership under the SAMRIDH initiative between USAID and NITI Aayog, the thinktank established by the Modi government. “It will improve access to affordable and quality healthcare for vulnerable populations in tier-2 and tier-3 cities, and rural and tribal regions,” the AIR tweet said.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is the chairman of the NITI Aayog.

NITI Aayog head Amitabh Kant was quoted as having said that this model of “blended financing” has the potential to redefine development finance.

“Deep State Sir…. oh wait…,” wrote Zubair, referring to yet another 2022 tweet, this time by now Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis.

Fadnavis said he was part of talks on collaborations “between USAID and MASHAV (Israeli Development Agency) in the development areas of agriculture, water, waste-water management in the state of Maharashtra.”

Zubair also pointed to a Reliance Foundation announcement of a joint effort with USAID to bridge the digital divide. “Over 3 lakh women and girls across 17 states in India are benefiting with support of 10 implementing partners of this initiative,” the Reliance Foundation said in its 2022 tweet.

One of Zubair’s most shared posts on the topic has been the screenshot of former BJP minister Smriti Irani speaking of the fact that she was the USAID ambassador in 2011.

Meanwhile, Aditya Ojha pointed out that Irani was a bit of a regular at USAID events even now and as recently as January 21.


Ojha pointed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s own 2021 speech on his “dream” of seeing a tuberculosis-free India by 2025 (a deadline India will miss). As Ojha highlighted, the official release of the event noted that “representatives of Development Partners like BMGF and USAID were also present at the event.”

Ojha also unearthed a tweet by ANI from 2014, when Modi visited then US president Barack Obama in US and the USAID chief was one of the special invitees.

Ojha also dug up an official government press release from June 2023 recording an MoU signed between India and USAID. The meeting was chaired by Modi. The government portal says:

“The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister, Shri Narendra Modi, today was apprised of signing of Memorandum of Understanding between India and United States for International Development/India (USAID/India) on June 14, 2023 for supporting Indian Railways to achieve Mission Net Zero Carbon Emission by 2030.”

It also notes: “Earlier, USAID/India had also worked with IR focused on deployment of rooftop solar across railway platforms.”

Ojha, who said he had “hundreds” of posts bookmarked also posted how the external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s son Dhruv recorded USAID assistance among steps announced by US government to assist India on COVID-19.

A video clip shared by journalist Umashankar Singh, of a former White House press secretary announcing USAID dispatches to India during COVID “at the request of the government of India” has been shared multiple times. The flights sent to India included oxygen, N-95 masks and tests. “These are all components that the Indian government has expressed a vital need for,” she is heard saying.

The assistance USAID provided India was more than $100 million, she says.

Punjab Man Meant to Be on Deportation Flight ‘Hospitalised’, Family Has No Official Word

Navdeep Singh’s family have spent Rs 50 lakhs over two failed ‘dunki’ attempts.

Jalandhar: Navdeep Singh was to return on a US military flight on February 15. His family from the Chak Ghubaya Taranwala village of Ferozepur district in Punjab arrived at Amritsar’s Sri Guru Ramdas Ji International Airport well ahead of time.

This was the second deportation aircraft that reached India from the US. In it, undocumented Indians were shackled over the course of an over 60-hour journey. A total of 332 Indians have been deported in three US military flights.

But Navdeep was not on the plane. His family was worried.

“We have no idea about our son’s return, as there is no information about further US deportation flights yet. There is nobody whom we can approach for clarity,” said Navdeep’s father Kashmir Singh. Kashmir has heard from two other deported men – Saurav from Ferozepur district and Gursewak from Rajpura in Patiala – that Navdeep was not on the plane because of his ill health. He was suffering from fever, cough and dizziness and was taken to a hospital, they told Kashmir. There has been no official word yet.

Navdeep had entered the US on January 27, 2025. This was his second illegal or dunki attempt. He travelled from Malaysia to Guatemala to reach the US. In July 2024, he had attempted to enter the US from Mexico, but by November, he had returned to India after failing.

After promises by his agent, Navdeep made the January attempt but was arrested and taken to the Tijuana camp on the US-Mexico border  and made to wait for deportation.

Navdeep’s father Kashmir, who works as a confectioner in the village, told The Wire that he has sold his one-acre agricultural land and his two buffaloes, and mortgaged his house to send his son to the US. One of his cousins is already there.

The agent told Kashmir that his son will reach the US legally via flights. The exercise will take Rs 42 lakh, he said. Later, the agent asked for Rs 3 lakh and Rs 5 lakh.

“I had no money to pay further but the agent kept demanding more and I ended up selling everything. I also borrowed some money from my relatives,” Kashmir said.

Also read: The Tortuous Routes Some Indians Are Taking to Get to Foreign Shores

When Navdeep first left for the US in July 2024, Kashmir paid Rs 30 lakh to the agent. When he had to return home in November 2024, the agent sought Rs 15 lakh for Navdeep’s second trip, this time from Malaysia. He also asked for Rs 5 lakh to pay Navdeep’s guarantor in the US.

“When the agent sent my son for a second US dunki, Donald Trump (then the presidential candidate) was repeatedly saying that he will act strictly against illegal immigrants. I told the agent that I do not want to send my son to the US. However, he kept telling me that there was nothing to worry about and that he had also arranged a guarantor to bring my son out of jail in the US. At one point during his dunki, I had to pay around Rs 4,400 every second day for my son’s food as the donkers did not give him anything to eat. I ended up spending Rs 3 lakh more,” he said.

Kashmir said that it would have been better had his son completed his graduation instead of going to the US. “He had just taken admission in BA first year at Guru Nanak College, Ferozepur, when he came across this agent and decided to go to the US. The problem is that there are no jobs and good salaries here. Above all, drug menace was a huge problem in Punjab. We thought that sending him to the US would bring an end to our woes,” Kashmir said.

Navdeep’s paternal uncle Jagir Singh also said that before boarding the US military plane, all the deportees were medically examined. “That is when they took my nephew back for treatment. We do not know when he will come back. Navdeep’s family, particularly his mother, is not in a good condition. She has been crying endlessly for her son. We are waiting for some information about the next deportation flight,” he said.

Also read: Three Things About India that Shackled Indians Returning Home Tell Us

US deportee lodges FIR against farmer union leader for duping him of Rs 45 lakh

Meanwhile, Jaswinder Singh from Pandori Arian village of the Moga district who was deported from the US has lodged an FIR against a Punjab-based farmer union leader for duping him of Rs 45 lakh in the name of sending him to the US via a dunki route. Jaswinder entered the US on January 27, 2025 and reached Amritsar on February 15, 2025.

The farmer union leader, he alleged, promised him a US visa but instead sent him with a Schengen visa to Prague. Jaswinder returned home in the second flight which landed in Amritsar on the night of February 15, 2025.

The FIR has been lodged against BKU Totewal state president Sukhwinder Singh Gill alias Sukh Gill, his mother Pritam Kaur and relatives Talwinder Singh and Gurpreet Singh under sections 143, 318 (4), 61 (2) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita and section 24 of The Emigration Act.

Sukhwinder Singh Gill is also a member of the Samyukt Kisan Morcha (SKM), the umbrella body of farmers’ union which led the farmers’ protest against the now-repealed farm laws in 2020 and 2021.

According to the FIR, Sukhwinder was running an immigration agency – Fateh Immigration – at Dharamkot in Moga district. Jaswinder stated that when he consulted Sukhwinder about his plans to move abroad, he advised Jaswinder go legally – on flights. The FIR also mentioned that Sukhwinder even promised a three-year work permit to Jaswinder in the US and demanded Rs 45 lakh for the same.

In November 2024, Gill took Jaswinder, who has studied till Class 10 to an office at a shopping mall in Chandigarh. Sukhwinder allegedly told him that it was the ‘US Embassy Office’ and sought Rs 14,000 in fees for some initial documentation.

As per the FIR, after some days, Sukhwinder told Jaswinder that his US visa had arrived and that his flight was on December 12, 2024. It was only when Jaswinder boarded his flight from Delhi and reached Prague that he got to know that he had a Schengen visa and not a US one.

At Prague, the youth was held captive at a hotel by Sukhwinder’s aides, who demanded more money from him and also made him speak to Sukhwinder through WhatsApp calls. Later, he was asked to transfer Rs 4 lakh to another person’s account, he alleged. Jaswinder also had to make two other transactions of Rs 2 lakh each.

From Prague, the complainant was sent to Spain and from Spain to El Salvador during which he again paid Rs 3.50 lakh. Finally, he was sent through the Panama jungle to enter the US. He was arrested by the US border police.

The Wire tried to contact Sukhwinder Singh Gill but his phone was switched off and as per reports, the farmer union leader was on the run.

SC Issues Contempt Notice to UP Govt Over Madni Masjid Demolition

The bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and AG Masih also restrained the Kushinagar district administration from carrying out any further demolition till the next hearing.

The Supreme Court issued a contempt notice to the district magistrate Kushinagar in Uttar Pradesh for allegedly demolishing part of a mosque in violation of the apex court’s November 2024 judgment that barred demolitions across the country without prior notice.

The bench comprising Justices B.R. Gavai and A.G. Masih also restrained the Kushinagar district administration from carrying out any further demolition till the next hearing date on March 18.

‘Fell on Stairs, Cops No Help, Slapped by Hospital Staff’: NDLS Stampede Victims Recount Night of Horror

Medical expenses, trauma and broken dreams unite the families who lost loved ones at a Delhi railway station on February 15.

New Delhi: “He was very religious. He used to chant Hanuman Chalisa every morning. On the day of the incident also, he prayed, but Hanuman ji didn’t save his life.”

These are the words of Manju Kushwaha, wife of Manoj, who died at the New Delhi Railway Station stampede on the night of February 15. 

Manoj, a resident of Chanchal Park in Delhi’s Nangloi, was 47 years old and among the 18 people who lost their lives in the stampede. His household now comprises a grieving wife and their two sons, Prince and Sachin. On the morning of the day he died, Manoj had dropped off Sachin at the exam centre for his Class 10 boards.

“He used to say that both children have to get properly educated,” said Manju. Manoj was the sole breadwinner of the family and would cycle 36 kilometres twice a day, to and from his workplace where he worked as welder.

His elder son Prince (19) is pursuing a Bachelor’s of Commerce from Satyawati College of Delhi University. He said he only got to know about his father’s demise the next morning, when his body came in an ambulance. “Papa wanted me to become a Chartered Accountant,” he said.

Sachin (15) said his father hoped he would become an engineer. “But I don’t want to. I used to tell him I will become a teacher when I grow up,” he added. 

Manoj Kushwaha with his wife Manju during Chhath Puja celebrations at Nangloi, Delhi. Photo: By arrangement.

For the family, this loss is devastating. “We had voted for Modi ji to see this day?” asks Manju.

Manju said that she was not allowed by police officers to speak to the media at LNJP hospital in Delhi where the body of her husband was brought. She now has only one request, that her children get government jobs.

Also read: Ground Report: Chaos at LNJP Hospital After New Delhi Railway Station Stampede

In the same stampede that killed Manoj, two of his neighbours who were accompanying him were severely injured.

Lal Babu Kushwaha (27), a resident of Bihar’s Siwan has been living in Delhi for the last eight months. He was on Platform 14 of the railway station when the stampede took place. Unable to walk, he was carried away by police personnel. At LNJP, his x-ray revealed that he has suffered an injury in his right leg, in the kneecap area. 

Lal Babu is now bedridden after he suffered serious injury in his right leg during the stampede. Photo: Syed Abubakr and Sumit Singh.

Lal Babu is also a welder and earns nearly Rs 16,000 a month. “I have two young children. I can’t go to work anymore. I don’t know how I’ll be able to feed them. I also have to bear my own medical expenses now,” he said. Compensation is relief but not enough, he said.

While Manoj’s family got Rs 10 lakh in cash, Lal Babu got Rs 2.5 lakh for his injuries.

“Officials came home and made us sign some documents and verified my identity from my Aadhaar card. They also made two other family members sign on a paper as witnesses that the amount has been received by me,” he said. 

Their neighbour Tuntun Bhagat (35) complains that the Railways did not do justice to his injured wife Neetu (30) as her injuries are not visible or as evident as those of Lal Babu. “She has inner injuries. She can’t stand for long and needs support to walk,” says Bhagat adding that the Railways only gave her Rs 1 lakh in cash as compensation as they considered her injuries to be minor. 

Tuntun Bhagat with his injured wife Neetu. Photo: Syed Abubakr and Sumit Singh.

Parents of two children, Tuntun and Neetu had wanted to take a holy dip in the Kumbh and were travelling with their neighbours. Tuntun said there were 11 people in total in the group and among them, four men and one child. All of them survived except Manoj Kushwaha. 

“On February 15, we reached platform 16 at around 7 pm. Three Prayagraj trains came and went but we couldn’t board any as there was no space. Then we heard an announcement that said a train to Prayagraj was coming on platform 12. We rushed there. A train came but it was, again, crowded. We let it go and waited on the platform,” Tuntun said.

“Another announcement was heard – one Prayagraj-bound train is going to come on platform 16. We started climbing the foot over-bridge, which was more crowded than the train coaches. We reached the entrance of platform 14-15, and decided to go down as the entrance of platform 16 was still a few steps away. There were only two police personnel who were managing a crowd of hundreds of people,” he added.

Tuntun alleged that a policeman’s action led to Manoj’s death.

“On the side of the stairs which led to platform 14, one of the policemen – in order to disperse the crowd from the foot overbridge – gave a push to Manoj. He fell on the stairs. I fell on him and Lal Babu fell on us. My wife also fell down. We felt like we were being buried alive. The crowd crush happened on the stairs, not on the platform,” Tuntun said. 

The situation persisted for over half-an-hour with no sign of help from Delhi Police or Indian Railways, he claimed. Manoj passed away in his arms, Tuntun said. “I won’t survive,” Manoj said, according to Tuntun.

“We carried his body from platform 14 to outside the railway station. We crossed over to platform 15 and jumped on empty tracks and moved towards platform 16. There, a train was stationed. We requested people inside the AC coach to open the door so we can use it as a passage. They helped and we carried the body through that train to platform 16 and then towards the exit gate,” he added. 

“Police were there outside the railway station but offered no help. I saw an ambulance stationed outside. I pleaded with them and they took Kushwaha’s body to Lady Hardinge Medical College, where he was declared brought dead,” Bhagat further said.

What transpired at LHMC was traumatic as well. Tuntun alleged he was slapped by a staff of LHMC. “I said, ‘Give us the body now that he’s no more. If you are keeping the body in hospital, let one of us stay here with the body.’ But the staff forcefully removed us from that area and asked us to move out. He slapped me four times,” Tuntun alleged. 

Usha Devi was in the ambulance which ferried Manoj Kushwaha to Lady Hardinge Medical College. Photo: Syed Abubakr and Sumit Singh.

Tuntun’s sister Usha (35), who has also been living in Delhi for the last eight years, accompanied him to the railway station for the Kumbh trip and later to the hospital. She claimed that the LHMC staff also threatened her. “He threatened to slap me after slapping Tuntun. I told him, ‘If you have the guts to slap me, then do it.’ We didn’t move an inch away and stood firm with the body. We refused to leave,” she said. 

Manoj’s body was the first to be ferried away in an ambulance from the site. His family claims that when his body came home, they paid Rs 2,200 to the ambulance.  

Seventy-year-old Asha died in the stampede. She hailed from Bihar’s Buxar. Her son Anubhav Sahay, who was also injured in the incident and resides in Noida, told The Wire that he has done the last rites of his mother in the city itself.

One Manoj Shah, who lives in Delhi lost his 15-year-old daughter Suruchi, father-in-law Vijay Shah and mother-in-law Krishna Devi in the stampede. His wife and brother-in-law have also suffered injuries.

RPF report

Meanwhile, an inquiry by the Railway Protection Force (RPF), a copy of which is with The Wire, states that 20 people were killed in the stampede on the night of February 15 at New Delhi Railway Station. This is two more than the figure of 18 released by the Indian Railways earlier. However, the RPF report has no list of names of the dead. It said that after the Shivganga Express left the station from platform 12, there was a sudden overcrowding that choked foot over-bridges 2 and 3 and caused a jam at platforms 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16.

The RPF report also said that an announcement was made at 8:45 pm that a Kumbh Special train going to Prayagraj was arriving at platform 12 and shortly afterwards, a second announcement was made that said the Kumbh Special train was arriving at platform 16. The report said that this made people rush to platform 16 and caused the stampede.

At the same time, as people were rushing to platform 16, the Magadh Express was on platform 14 and Uttar Sampark Kranti train was on platform 15, which were between platforms 12 and 16, according to the report. The report said the stampede was reported by the RPF staff at 8:48 pm. 

Almost two-and-half hours later – at 11:16 pm – the news agency ANI posted on X quoting the CPRO of the Northern Railways who said, “There is no stampede. It is only a rumour. Northern Railways was running two planned special trains (for Prayagraj).” 


This reaction, hours after the incident took place, has angered many. Instead of acknowledging what had transpired – now codified in detail in the RPF report – the Indian Railways had tried to cover it up. 

Communal efforts at work

Amid all this, a video on X related to the incident has gained massive traction. Posted by an account named Kreately Media, the caption reads, “Some people started shouting Allahu Akbar on platform & pushing all of us. My friend Ayush died & my hand is badly bruised. Horrific facts by eye witness Shivam Shukla.” 

None of the eye witnesses or victims of the stampede corroborated the claims of religious sloganeering.

Further, Shivam Shukla claimed that his friend Ayush has died. This name does not appear in the list of the dead or injured.

Shivam Shukla’s name was on the list of injured at LNJP hospital and he has been paid Rs. 1 lakh as compensation. When we dialled his number, it was switched off. The video has nearly 7 lakh impressions and 18,000 ‘likes’ on X alone. 

Suspended, Detained and Insulted: Here’s How Jamia Students are Fighting for Their Right to Protest

“I was carried by a male and a female guard, my body exposed. I was screaming and asking them to at least let me fix my clothes,” said a protesting student who was suspended from the university and detained by the police.

New Delhi: On the wee hours of February 13, 14 students who were protesting inside gate seven of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) in Delhi were woken up while they were sleeping in front of the central canteen and forcibly carried by security guards of the institute under the guidance of the chief security officer of the university Syed Abdul Rasheed. 

They were then handed over to the Delhi Police who were inside the campus near another gate. Later, the students were detained at different stations in Delhi for almost 12 hours without being informed of any grounds for detention and access to lawyers. 

These 14 students were part of a sit-in protest which commenced on February 10 in front of the central canteen in the university. They were demanding the revoking of the disciplinary action against four students – Saurabh, Jyoti, Fuzail Shabbar and Niranjan – who were targeted for organising an event, remembrance day, on December 16 to commemorate the fifth anniversary of the police crackdown on the university campus during the protests against Citizenship (Amendment) Act-National Register of Citizens (CAA-NRC) on December 15, 2019. 

“The guards came from three sides. While I was sleeping, I was picked up by my hair. I woke up to the male guards pulling my leg, they did not allow us to even wear our slippers. I was carried by a male and a female guard, my body exposed. I was screaming and asking them to at least let me fix my clothes. The more I was resisting, the more aggressive they became,” said U.R. Uthara, first year MA Sociology student who was among the 14 students who were detained by the police and later suspended from the university. 

The events that led to the protest

The students sought permission from the proctor’s office to organise an event to mark the remembrance day on December 15. However, they were denied permission. 

They organised the event the next day (December 16) after the classes at 5.30 pm, it started with a march, which commenced and ended at the central canteen. Next, students gave speeches highlighting the police brutality that happened in 2019 and threw light on the ongoing fascist attack on educational institutions. The event lasted for about an hour.

On December 17, one of the organisers of the event, Saurabh, a PhD scholar in the Department of Hindi and a member of All India Students Association (AISA) received a show cause notice from the proctor’s office, in which it was stated that the event had a “malafide political agenda” and it “paralyses academic spaces”. 

However, Saurabh refuted the claims of the university administration. 

“There is no malafide political agenda. The police crackdown on December 15, 2019 was a brutal attack on the entire university, we did not have any individual political agenda,” Saurabh told The Wire. Subsequently, he sent a 16-page letter to the administration on December 20 which they deemed “unsatisfactory”. 

Following this, he received a notice on February 3, informing that a disciplinary committee would be formed to take action against him with no mention of a date for the same. 

Also read: Odisha: KIIT Accused of Racism and Intimidation After Nepal Student’s Death Sparks Outrage

“By then, we understood that we were being rusticated. They had completely butchered our rights as students,” said Jyoti, also a PhD scholar in the Department of Hindi and a member of Dayar-I-Shauq Students’ Charter (DISSC). 

On February 10, a sit-in protest was organised in response to the action taken by the administration against Saurabh. A day prior to this (February 9), three other students – Jyoti, Fuzail, a first year B.Tech in computer engineering and member of DISSC and Niranjan, a fourth year law student and member of All India Revolutionary Students Organisation (AIRSO) — also received notices for disciplinary action. 

“By this time, it was necessary to start the protest because there are many students being affected by these futile show-cause notices for gatherings. They demand that we take permission for every event and later reject every single one of them. That’s the situation of the campus now,” says Jyoti. 

According to a memorandum released by the university registrar on August 29, 2022 “no meeting/gathering of students shall be allowed in any part of the campus without prior permission of the proctor, failing which disciplinary action shall be taken against the erring students.”

Another memorandum released on November 29 last year states that “no protests, dharnas, raising slogans against any constitutional dignitaries shall be allowed in any part of the university campus.” Along with this, there is a fine ranging up to Rs 50,000 for graffiti and postering in the campus premises. 

 

 

Memorandum released by Jamia Millia Islamia authorities on November 29, 2024.

“When we sought permission to hold a study circle during the International Day for Solidarity for the Palestine People, the administration denied it. We had to resort to distributing pamphlets. Still we received calls asking us not to engage in such activities. There is no freedom to organise anything in the campus,” said Mishkat Tehrim, a first year student of MA Sociology, who was detained and later suspended. 

The right to organise and gather is part of the six freedoms in Article 19. However, the brutal state repression and militarisation has curtailed the rights of the students in the university. 

Along with this, the presence of police inside the campus raises serious questions about the safety of the students. “This is not the first time the police entered the campus. It happened in 2019 during the anti-CAA NRC protests. At this point, it is not very surprising the police were already inside the campus,” said Uthara. 

‘Want our democratic space back’ 

“The students were taken from the central canteen area, harassed by the guards and were handed over to 50-60 police officers who were waiting inside gate four. They deliberately took us out through gate four because there are no cameras there,” Jyoti said, recalling the ordeal that they had to face on February 13. 

The students were then shoved into three buses, and taken to three different stations – Kalkaji, Badarpur and Bawana. 

“We had asked them to take us together. When they denied, we requested to at least put the female students together according to the protocol. This was also denied,” said Uthara, who was taken along with Mishkat, Sajahan Ali, both first year MA Sociology students and members of AISA, and another male student to the Kalkaji police station.

When other students and media reached Kalkaji station, they were not allowed to meet the detained individuals and their whereabouts were also not revealed. 

At around 10 am, when more people gathered outside Kalkaji station, these students were taken to Fatehpur Beri station, in the pretext of taking them back to the campus. They were kept there till 4 pm in the evening, denied access to their lawyers even after multiple requests. 

Along with this, the students were forced to sign documents – contents of which they couldn’t read – as they were threatened that they would not be released unless they signed it. “Our parents were also called to coerce us to sign those documents,” Mishkat said. 

The students underlined that they were “treated like criminals, physically and verbally harassed by the police officers.” For instance, Habeeba, who was detained in the Badarpur police station, was allegedly slapped by a police officer for resisting to give her phone. 

Another detainee, who did not wish to be named, has said that Islamophic slurs were directed at him, such as “yeh musalmaan log sirf dange fasaad karte hain (These Muslims create riots and fights everywhere).” 

This wasn’t all. The administration has been using various measures to dismantle and disrupt the sit-in protests. 

On the first night of the protest on February 10, authorities cut off the electricity in the campus, closed the washrooms and shut off the canteen area. Along with this, the vice chancellor, Mazhar Asif has allegedly denied holding any dialogue with the students. 

On February 11, the parents of these protesting students were called by police officers and they instructed them to ask their children to withdraw from the protests. “This means the administration has shared our numbers with the police,” says Mishkat. 

“The day before detaining [us], the Jamia Nagar police called my father asking him to coerce me to back out from the protests. He runs an auto-rickshaw in Kolkata, receiving multiple calls from the police threatening that an FIR would be booked against his son and he will be expelled from college was to frighten him and to intimidate me,” says Sajahan.

On February 12, the night before the detention, seven students including Sajahan received suspension letters for a clash which happened 800 metres away from the protest site. 

Posters by AISA in Jamia Millia Islamia university campus during the recent protests.

Posters in Jamia Millia Islamia university campus. Photo: U.R. Uthara

Now, all the 17 students involved in the sit-in protests have been suspended. The reasons cited in one of the suspension letters include “leading an unruly and rowdy group of individuals to vandalise and deface the university’s property, disrupting the normal functioning of the campus, creating ruckus inside the campus, creating gross inconvenience to other students and defacing university property.” 

“Suspension cannot happen in isolation,” says Uthara adding, “there is a due process for it. You should receive a show-cause notice. With the reply being unsatisfactory, a disciplinary committee will be looking into the issue and they will decide whether a suspension is necessary and if yes, the details of it.” 

However, in this case none of that has happened. “Normally suspension lasts for two weeks. In the letters we received, no time is mentioned. They can suspend me again if I attempt to enter the campus after two weeks” she adds. 

After the detained students were released on February 14, posters displaying their name, phone numbers, email IDs and political affiliations with the seal of the university were pasted inside gate seven, eight and 13 of the institute. 

In an official statement, the university refuted this allegation saying that “some individuals and anti-social elements have been attempting to defame the image of the university and its students by spreading misleading, defamatory and malicious messages.” 

The statement has put the blame on the protesting students for spreading the personal information and said it “condemns such brazen and irresponsible acts.” 

Sonakshi Gupta, another student who got suspended has been receiving calls and messages from unknown numbers since her name and number were displayed on the posters. 

“If the university is not responsible for this, how did their seal come in those posters?” asked Sajahan, in a press conference jointly organised by different student political parties of JMI on February 16 at the Press Club of India. 

A student shouts slogans in support of protesting students in Jamia Millia Islamia.

All the 17 students involved in the sit-in protests have been suspended in Jamia Millia Islamia. Photo: U.R. Uthara

Apart from revoking of the suspension, the students have put forward five other demands in the press conference, which includes “an immediate end to the issuance of show cause notices to students exercising their fundamental rights, revocation of all show-cause notices issued to students for raising their voices, repealing of the official memorandum dated August 29, 2022 and November 29, 2024, an end to the witch-hunt against students for expressing dissent and withdrawal of the notice penalising postering and graffiti on Jamia walls.” 

The press conference organised by the suspended students saw large scale participation by students from various educational institutions and political organisations. 

Underlining how “democratic spaces” are shrinking in university campuses, Jyoti pointed out, “We want our democratic spaces back. If the administration has a problem with the political culture of the university, they can resign. Or else they need to ensure the freedom and safety of the students.”

As students from various departments of the university have released solidarity statements in support of the suspended students, the classes in JMI were also boycotted on February 17. However, the administration has been actively working to suppress any kind of resistance and voices in support of the suspended students. 

“The registrar, Mehtab Alam Rizvi has said that if somebody boycotts classes on the [February] 17th, the entire class would be suspended. What kind of authoritarianism is this,” asks Jyothi. 

The boycott, however, saw huge participation from students with classrooms remaining empty. On the same day, the students submitted a memorandum to the dean of student welfare demanding the immediate revoking of all suspension letters with an ultimatum of 48 hours. 

Hajara Najeeb is a researcher based in Delhi. 

Odisha: KIIT Accused of Racism and Intimidation After Nepal Student’s Death Sparks Outrage

KIIT registrar issued a letter describing the incident as “unfortunate” and appealed to all the students from Nepal to return to the campus to resume classes. Earlier, the authorities had declared the institute closed sine die for international students from Nepal.

Bhubaneswar: The alleged death by suicide of a Nepalese student at a private university in Odisha’s capital city and the indifferent attitude of the university staff towards the students from the Himalayan kingdom, who were asked to vacate their hostels immediately, have triggered an international outcry. 

On Tuesday (February 18), the Odisha government has constituted a high-level fact finding committee to inquire into the incidents that took place at the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) university in the wake of the suicide of a girl student from Nepal on the campus. 

In a press release, the government said that it would take “appropriate legal and administrative” action in the matter based on the findings of the committee that consists of additional chief secretary, home department, principal secretary, women and child development department and commissioner-cum-secretary, higher education department. 

The release, which said that the institution had been placed under notice, described the incidents as “unfortunate”. It said that “government of Odisha had taken immediate cognisance of the matter and taken steps to arrest security guards and suspension of erring officials involved.” 

“The government of Odisha remains committed to ensuring the safety, dignity and well-being of every student. The Odisha government will take all necessary steps to ensure that justice is served swiftly and fairly,” the press release added. 

Speaking on the issue earlier, Nepalese Prime Minister K.P. Sharma Oli threatened that it might “impact Indo-Nepal relations”. Following the backlash, the authorities at KIIT, Odisha’s first private university founded by former Biju Janata Dal (BJD) MP Achyut Samanta, have apologised for the inconvenience caused to the students from Nepal but the incident seems to have done irreparable damage to the image of the institution.

The incident that triggered protests

Trouble erupted at the university after the dead body of a 20-year-old undergraduate student from Nepal was found in her room on Sunday (February 16).

Although no suicide note was found, the student’s cousin, who is also a student at KIIT, told the Infocity police in his complaint that his sister was forced to take the extreme step because of alleged misbehaviour and blackmail by her ex-boyfriend, who is a third-year mechanical engineering student at the university.

Sources in the university blamed the death of the student on her boyfriend’s ‘abusive behaviour’. The victim allegedly also complained against him to the university authorities but to no avail.

After seizing her laptop and mobile phone, the police have arrested the boyfriend. Bhubaneswar-Cuttack commissioner of police S. Dev Datta Singh said the accused was nabbed on the basis of prima facie evidence that suggested that he was harassing the student.

Meanwhile, the incident triggered protests by Nepalese students who blocked the road outside the university campus, forcing police intervention. Next, the university authorities in a knee-jerk reaction declared the institute closed sine die for international students from Nepal and asked them to vacate the hostels on Monday (February 17). 

The students, many of whom did not even have enough money to buy tickets to travel back home, were herded onto buses and abondoned at the Cuttack railway station. Many protested vociferously but their protests fell on deaf ears. 

“We were asked to vacate the hostels after we protested against the death of the girl. We don’t know what their intentions are. I am neither sure of train timings nor do I have money to travel. We have not even had food. We are helpless. We were simply asked to vacate the hostels. The staff members entered the hostel and forced us to move out. They even hit those who were slow in vacating the hostel,” said Rajan Gupta, one of the Nepalese students abondoned by the KIIT authorities at Cuttack station. 

As Nepal government stands by the students, KIIT authorities are in a damage control mode 

As videos of harassed students describing their ordeal went viral on social media, Sharma Oli was forced to intervene. He assured the students that two officers from the Nepalese embassy in Delhi were being dispatched to take care of them. 

“Our Embassy in New Delhi has dispatched two officers to counsel Nepali students affected in Odisha. Additionally, arrangements have been made to ensure they have the option to either remain in their hostel or return home, based on their preference,” he wrote on his X handle. 

Meanwhile, Nepali parliamentarians have also urged the government to take immediate steps to ensure the safety of Nepali students studying in India. During an emergency session of the Nepal House of Representatives on Tuesday (February 18), MPs Chhabilal Bishwakarma, Madhav Sapkota, Dhruv Bahadur Pradhan, and Thakur Gaire called for a probe into the death of the student and also demanded action against those responsible, reported The Kathmandu Post.

Although officials had not yet arrived at KIIT by the time this report was filed, the fear of the issue gaining international attention has clearly put the KIIT authorities on the defensive, prompting a massive damage control effort.

On Monday (February 17) evening, KIIT registrar Jnyana Ranjan Mohanty issued a letter describing the incident as “unfortunate” and appealed to all the students from Nepal to return to the campus to resume classes. 

“There was an unfortunate incident which took place late in the evening yesterday on the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT) campus. Immediately after the incident police investigated the matter and apprehended the culprit. The KIIT administration has taken all out efforts to restore normalcy in the campus and hostels to resume the academic activities. An appeal is made to all our Nepali students who have or plan to leave the campus to return and resume the classes,” said the letter.

A few hours later, KIIT authorities, apparently having realised their mistake, opened a dedicated control room to facilitate the return of the Nepalese students to the campus. A 24×7 helpline was also set up to provide them support and guidance. 

“We urge all Nepali students to reach out for any assistance. KIIT remains committed to their safety and well- being,” the university said in a statement. 

On Tuesday (February 18), when the university saw a silent protest by foreign students studying there, additional registrar Shyam Sunder Behura told mediapersons that every possible effort was being made to bring back the Nepalese students who had left the campus. 

Acknowledging that there had been a mistake, he said, “Almost 100 Nepalese students are already back. Bringing them back is our priority. Their parents are also being taken into confidence.” 

He added that the Nepalese students had been asked to vacate the hostels because they had created trouble on the campus following the suicide of the student who was from their country. “They had blocked the road,” he said, adding that the university had so far received no communication from the Nepal government.

The university issued an apology in a “follow up” notice that said that two security staff had been immediately terminated and two senior hostel officials and one senior administrative officer of the International Relations Office (IRO) had been placed under suspension pending thorough inquiry. 

“For our staff we recognise that certain comments were made in the heat of the moment and we apologise for any distress caused. We prioritise the safety and well being of students above all,” said the notice. 

The apology came on a day when the incidents on the KIIT campus found an echo in the state Assembly with leaders cutting across parties expressing concern over the issue. Talking to reporters outside the Assembly, BJP MLA Babu Singh condemned the atrocities committed against Nepalese students and demanded action against KIIT authorities. 

The insensitive behaviour of KIIT authorities against Nepalese students was also condemned by the father of the student, who died by suicide. He reached Bhubaneswar this morning.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, “This is unfortunate. Students come to study here from far off countries because of your assurance. You should not treat them in this manner.” He, however, admitted that university authorities as well as the police were cooperating with him and he expected that justice would be done to him. 

The viral video clips

The insensitive behaviour of the KIIT authorities was evident from one of the video clips that went viral on social media. It captured heated exchanges between university officials and students purportedly inside the hostel where the deceased resided. 

At one point during the argument, a female official is seen asking the Nepalese students to go wherever they felt safe while stating that the amount spent by the university on students’ welfare was more than the national budget of Nepal. The statement was widely criticised and even led to protests by student. 

“Do not insult the founder of this university. The man is feeding 40,000 students for free. Such an amount would even be more than your country’s entire budget,” the official can be heard saying in the clip. 

The alleged highhandedness of KIIT authorities has also drawn protests from various students’ organisations which demanded strict action against the guilty and an apology from the university to the Nepalese students. 

“We urge the university to issue an immediate apology to Nepali students, ensure their accommodation and food arrangements, and provide adequate compensation to the deceased student’s family,” said the Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), noting that such incidents could adversely impact the strong ties between India and Nepal.

If you know someone – friend or family member – at risk of suicide, please reach out to them. The Suicide Prevention India Foundation maintains a list of telephone numbers they can call to speak in confidence. The TeleManas helpline, a government helpline functions 24×7, the numbers are:1-800 891 4416/14416. You could also take them to the nearest hospital.

Fear, Profiling, Political Blame: Bengali Migrants Struggle Amid Delhi’s Anti-Immigrant Drive

Beyond the political blame game, xenophobia against Bengali migrants is taking root among some residents.

Reshma Malik (name changed) sits amidst the stench of garbage heaps in southwest Delhi’s Rangpuri, her hands sorting through waste to find anything useful.

“They arrest Bengalis, falsely frame them as Bangladeshis, and only let them go after extorting Rs 30-40,000,” she alleged.

Reshma, 46, migrated from West Bengal’s Katwa to Delhi 15 years ago in search of a better life. She works for a contractor working with the Municipal Corporation of Delhi and segregates waste to support her family.

Like Reshma, Rangpuri is home to migrants from various places, including Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, West Bengal, Assam and Odisha. Rag picking and waste segregation are among the primary occupations here.

On December 29, 2024, the Delhi police detained eight Bangladeshi nationals from Rangpuri for lacking documentation. This crackdown followed lieutenant governor V.K. Saxena’s December 10 order for a two-month drive to identify and act against undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants.

The arrests sparked panic among Bengali Muslims, many of whom, despite living in India for decades, fear being profiled on the basis of their language and lack of proper documentation.

Given the breakdown of industries in Bengal, there is no option for Bangladeshi immigrants but to go on long journeys elsewhere, as is the case for many Indian Bengalis.

Garbage piles up in Rangpuri's Bengali Tola.

A heap of garbage at Bengali Tola, where Reshma works. Photo: Unzila Sheikh.

Political blame-game

As the Delhi assembly elections approached, both the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) intensified their anti-immigrant rhetoric. The then-incumbent AAP’s anti-immigrant views were reflected in December when the Delhi government’s Directorate of Education directed schools to ensure “strict admission procedures” and the “verification of students’ documentation” to prevent undocumented Bangladeshi migrants from being enrolled.

“Schools must ensure strict admission procedures, verification of students’ documentation to prevent illegal Bangladeshi migrants’ enrollment, implementation of greater scrutiny to detect and prevent unauthorised admissions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants in particular,” read the circular.

On February 3, BJP national spokesperson and MP Sambit Patra cited a Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) report, alleging that illegal migrants in Delhi are “thriving under the AAP’s patronage.”

The report, released just two days before the assembly elections, claimed that an influx of Bangladeshi and Rohingya migrants had significantly increased the Muslim population in Delhi and the National Capital Region, altering the capital’s socio-political and economic landscape.

Claiming that Bangladeshis had taken over jobs meant for Purvanchalis – people from eastern Uttar Pradesh and parts of Bihar – the BJP spokesperson said, “Behind all this is political protection, particularly from AAP and the Congress.”

JNU vice-chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit clarified that the report was an Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR) project involving scholars from JNU and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences.

However, the report’s first page stated it was “presented” by JNU.

The ICSSR is the top government body overseeing research in the social and human sciences and operates under the Ministry of Education.

The report, which was reportedly published even as it was incomplete, is being criticised as academically compromised.

Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath further fueled the debate, accusing the AAP of enabling undocumented immigrants to obtain Aadhaar cards. “Bangladeshi infiltrators are being provided with Aadhaar cards … in the houses of AAP leaders,” he claimed.

A BJP campaign van in Delhi's Rangpuri.

A BJP campaign van in Rangpuri. Photo: Unzila Sheikh.

‘If a government-issued document isn’t proof, what is?’

Bengali Muslims in Rangpuri claimed that the police often question the validity of their Aadhaar cards.

“Police often question if our Aadhaar cards are real and have detained a few people despite them showing it. If a government-issued document isn’t proof, then what is?” asked Reshma.

“It has become very difficult to prove who among them are illegal immigrants. Almost all of them have their basic documents ready. This is why we rely on common trends [dialect, etc.] found among illegal immigrants we have detained previously and try to trace their places of origin,” the Indian Express quoted an officer as saying.

Meanwhile, deputy commissioner of police (Outer) Sachin Sharma confirmed that “special teams” were coordinating with district foreigners’ cells to verify suspected undocumented migrants.

“If a person is deemed suspicious, police teams are sent to verify their claims in their home states,” he said.

On February 4, the AAP’s Greater Kailash candidate Saurabh Bharadwaj fired back, shifting the blame to the BJP-led Union government.

“The blame should fall on the BJP’s government at the centre, in Bihar and in Uttar Pradesh … Why did they allow so many Bangladeshis in?” Bharadwaj asked, noting that the BJP-led Union government and his AAP government in Delhi had been in power for around the same time.

Beyond the political blame game, xenophobia is taking root among residents. Some insist there are only a few Bangladeshis left in Rangpuri’s Bengali Tola area, while others claim nearly all garbage workers there are Bangladeshi migrants with fraudulent documents.

“A true Bengali wouldn’t touch garbage,” said Bholanath, 50, a Rangpuri resident. “They hold Aadhaar, but if you check their past generations, they are all Bangladeshi. Police arrest them, take 30-40 thousand and let them go. Those who can’t pay stay in jail.” This aligns with Reshma’s allegation that police arrest Bengalis and let them go after taking bribes.

Such anti-immigrant rhetoric not new

The anti-immigrant rhetoric before the election is not novel. During 2014, the BJP launched a highly charged campaign against Bangladeshi immigrants. During a rally, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that “Bangladeshis” will be deported if he comes to power. “You can write it down. After May 16, these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed,” Modi said in Serampore in West Bengal, which shares a porous border with Bangladesh.

Prior to this, in the 1990s, “Operation Pushback” was launched to “detect and deport” Bangladeshi illegal immigrants from Delhi.

Forty-two years ago on this day, as many as 2,000 (unofficial estimates suggest up to 5,000) Bengal-origin Muslims were killed in and around the central Assam town of Nellie by a huge mob of people from the Tiwa, Koch, caste Hindu Assamese and other local communities, in just six hours.

The carnage, which has been termed by some as among the “biggest instances of sectarian mass violence” in independent India, happened in the middle of the anti-foreigner Assam movement (1979-85) that sought to cleanse the state of “foreigners” or “illegal Bangladeshis” and protect the “indigenous” from the “outsider”.

Nellie was not the only village that saw a massacre that day: thirteen other villages were attacked. The Tiwari Commission report also blamed the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and the BJP among others for the violence unleashed on the alleged Bangladeshi people.

It reportedly said,

“The circumstances leading to the disturbances which took place during January to April, 1983 were provided by the fact that when it was decided to hold the general elections, certain sections of public instigated by AASU/AAGSP [All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad] and political parties like, BJP, Janata and Lok Dal and some anti-social elements decided to boycott the election and even resorted to violence to further their objective.”

‘They say we’re stealing their resources, but we live worse than animals’

India’s immigration laws are dictated by the 1920 Passport Act, the 1946 Foreigners Act and the 1939 Registration of Foreigners Act. Since 1971, lax border controls have allowed millions of Bangladeshi nationals to enter and eventually obtain documents – sometimes by legal means, often not.

However, the government’s stance disproportionately targets Muslim migrants, labeling them “infiltrators”, while other minority groups are classified as “migrants” fleeing persecution.

“We want to go back, but there is war going on, back at home. We are terrified of the ongoing crackdown on [undocumented] Bangladeshi immigrants as the same can [affect] us. They say we are stealing their resources, but look at us, we live worse than animals – no electricity, no water, nothing,” said Shaku Tara, 29, a Rohingya Muslim woman who moved to Delhi’s Shram Vihar in 2015.

Refugee shanties in Delhi's Shram Vihar.

Refugee shanties in Delhi’s Shram Vihar. Photo: Unzila Sheikh.

Legal pathways exist for “eligible legal migrants” to acquire citizenship through naturalisation or registration. However, India is not a signatory to the 1951 UN Refugee Convention or its 1967 protocol, making the situation precarious for about 40,000 Rohingya Muslims living in camps across India as of a 2019 estimate.

Without legal rights, they face constant threats of deportation, hostility and discrimination, fueling the growing xenophobia against them.

As political parties exploit anti-immigrant rhetoric for electoral gains, the consequences extend far beyond politics – they fracture societies and fuel violence. The ‘us versus them’ narrative, rooted in the fear that outsiders are taking away resources, has historically led to bloodshed.

In Rwanda, years before the 1994 genocide, Tutsis were branded as “cockroaches” and scapegoated for economic struggles. This dehumanisation, a key phase in Gregory Stanton’s Ten Stages of Genocide, led to their eventual massacre.

Similarly, in Nazi Germany, Jews were accused of controlling wealth and undermining the nation, paving the way for state-led persecution.

When a group is portrayed as a threat to jobs, housing or security, it fosters resentment, making violence seem justifiable. In India, branding entire communities as “illegal infiltrators” echoes these patterns, pushing them into the margins and setting the stage for deeper social unrest.

Unzila Sheikh is a freelance journalist and first-year convergent journalism student at Jamia Millia Islamia. She primarily covers politics and minority issues with a focus on in-depth reporting.

The Very Important Hindus and the Ones That Are Not Counted

Would it have been possible for the Hindutva government to plead inability to either count or be accountable for those that died seemingly in droves had they been VIPs and VVIPs?

Even as much has been said about the grand event of the Maha Kumbh festival, one rather telling thing remains to be observed.

It has been the defining ideological pitch of the Hindutva players over the last many months that Hindus must learn to obliterate all forms of division among themselves in order to be safe and invulnerable.

There has also been little ambiguity as to who it is from whom danger ostensibly to Hindu supremacy emanates.

Thus, the frustrating faultlines of caste, region, dialect, gender, political turf wars etc. have come in for disparagement from both the grand icons of Hindutva, namely, the prime minister and the chief minister of Uttar Pradesh which hosts the Maha Kumbh festival.

As the fatal stampedes happened, widespread public comment came to the fore, bemoaning the bottlenecks caused by the exclusive arrangements made for the VIPs and VVIPS.

Some media outlets were bold enough to come forward with criticism to this effect.

We may recall that a similar differentiation between ordinary pilgrims and VIPs had been in evidence at the time of the inauguration of the new Ram Temple at Ayodhya.

Also read: Is 2025 Maha Kumbh Really a ‘Rare’ Event Held After 144 Years?

We do not know how many died in the Kumbh stampedes at Prayagraj.

You see, the magical new digital tool of AI seems to count only the living and not the dead.

This discovery by itself may, of course, have furnished an important research input to the whiz kids who invented AI, so that we may in future expect that the dead may also come to be counted by this god-like technology.

Had AI been equipped to count the dead, why surely the in-your-face chief executive of Uttar Pradesh would not have shied away from sharing the extent of the carnage with fellow Hindus across the realm.

At any rate, Hindutva being philosophical in the extreme, when push comes to shove, it was left to a noted seer, Shri Dhirendra Shastri to instruct the flock how those that died attending the Maha Kumb attained Moksha or salvation.

Why more of the living who after all were attending the Kumbh precisely to secure salvation did not think of this option remains a matter of deep spiritual cogitation.

But here is the point: in seeking the unity of all Hindus against the ever-menacing threat from the Saracen, cancelling all fault lines, the one faultline that remained unaddressed was that of class.

Clearly, where caste, region, dialect, gender, political interest are all to be set aside if Hindu supremacy is to be ensured, there seems no call on the great mass of Hindutva followers to also unite across classes.

That the powers-that-be don’t think this desirable or an opposite part of the call to unity was clear from the poshly discreet arrangements that were made for privileged and important Hindus to take their salvational dip pronto, without hassles from the mass of less endowed devotees.

One might also speculate whether the great seer cited above would have said what he said of those that died should the dead ones have come from among the important and very important Hindus.

Nor might it have been possible for the Hindutva government to plead inability to either count or be accountable for those that died seemingly in droves.

So you see, come to think of it, even as faith continues to be pressed into service to camouflage the cruel realities of economic divisions, the organisation of the grand festival at Prayagraj has once again proved the truth of the leftist maxim: you may obliterate as many fault lines as you wish but even the history of Hindutva consolidation remains slave to the overriding divisions between those that have and those that do not, however they may all be very devoted followers of Hindutva.

How consequential this truth may be made in the future of the republic is of course quite another matter.

 Badri Raina taught at DU.