While an advisory from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has asked the State police to maintain a vigil on the happenings on social media here owing to the widespread protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), the law enforcement agencies in Jharkhand are paying special attention to maintaining peace in Santhal Pargana on road to the final phase of polls, police said on Tuesday.
Sixteen constituencies in Santhal Pargana — the only region in Jharkhand that shares demographic resemblance with neighbouring West Bengal and is said to have the strongest concentration of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in State — are set to go to polls on Friday.
“Sufficient security forces have been deployed across the constituencies that will vote in the final phase to curtail any protest or unrest from snowballing into a conflagration,” said Additional Director General (Operations), ML Meena. All the concerned Superintendents of Police have been directed to maintain a vigil on the happenings in the area and intercept any attempts made to disrupt peace, he added.
Unlike New Delhi, West Bengal and parts of Hyderabad, Jharkhand has not witnessed violent protests against the CAA — an Act that allows Indian citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan assuming religious persecution to be a reason for their migration. Parts of Jharkhand witnessed peaceful protests soon after the Rajya Sabha gave its nod to the CAA on December 12.
The MHA advisory has also asked all States and Union Territories to keep an eye on rumour mongers and maintain religious harmony. “The district police have been asked to maintain a vigil on social media. We are taking all precautionary measures and are ready to tackle situations of unrest if any,” Meena said.
All the 16 constituencies going to polls on Friday fall in the Santhal Pargana region — a tribal-dominated region in the northeast corner of Jharkhand that has been reportedly battling Bangladeshi infiltration since decades. Despite the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and other saffron groups waging war against illegal Bangladeshi settlers in the area since early 21st century, the problem has only escalated over the years, claims the BJP.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, during a rally in Godda parliamentary constituency earlier this year, slammed the opposition parties for allegedly providing refuge to illegal immigrants from the neighbouring country and fostering them as vote banks. He warned that such practices for political benefits may put the security of the country at risk. The statement came much before the CAA was passed.
According to local BJP leaders, Jharkhand’s first chief minister, Babulal Marandi, who later quit the BJP to form his own party, had said in an Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) event in 2002 that identifying and driving back the illegal Bangladeshi settlers from the region was one of the agendas of the Government. “We have to look for every Bangladeshi in Jharkhand and deport them one by one,” Chief Minister Raghubar Das said in September 2018, raising concern over the alleged infiltration by Bangladeshi settlers in Santhal region of the State.
A five-phase election for the 81 Assembly constituencies in Jharkhand is underway since November 30. The Left Wing Extremism-affected State has witnessed quite a few incidents triggered by insurgents since the announcement of elections here on November 1. However, no major casualties have been reported on polling days during the first four phases of elections in the State.