In Indias tribal-dominated Jharkhand, BJP labels Muslims as Bangladeshis | Elections News [Video]

Pakur, India – Sitting at a dusty roadside tea stall with his friends in Bada Sanakad village in the tribal-dominated eastern Indian state of Jharkhand, Abdul Gafur is furious.

“Who says we are Bangladeshi infiltrators? Hear me out, we are the registered citizens of India. To date, God knows how many of our generations have passed away on this land. So, do not insult our ancestors by calling us infiltrators,” said the 46-year-old farmer, as nearly a dozen of his companions, most of them Muslims, nodded in agreement.

Gafur is a Muslim, a community in Jharkhand that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been painting as “Bangladeshi infiltrators” for months as it seeks to unseat a coalition of opposition parties, led by Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM), in the two-phase state assembly election that started on November 13.

Bada Sanakad falls in Jharkhand’s Pakur district, which together with …