On 16 June, four Indians were “brought back” from Bangladesh – when they were deported on suspicion of being Bangladeshi.

These four Indians were Muslim, Bengali speakers and suspected to be Bangladeshi, claiming the Maharashtra Police and the State Government. The unfamiliarity of the police in Maharashtra, Gujarat, Haryana or Delhi with various dialects of Bengali or Assamese added ‘suspects’ in their suspicion, allegedly.

Was it more bizarre that these citizens were asked to sing the national anthem. They had fallen, which strengthened the doubt that they were not Indians. Every time he claimed that he was an Indian from West Bengal, he was beaten up, he remembered when he returned to his home.

But how many poor and semi-literate people in India can really sing the national anthem? Even policemen are fully familiar with the song? Is this now a litmus test of citizenship?

Documents produced by these alleged ‘interpopers’ as proof of his Indian citizenship, including their Aadhaar number and even voters’ identity cards, were thrown away – probably on suspicion that they were forged.

The West Bengal government was not taken into confidence.

The Bangladesh government was not consulted, either.

Nevertheless, men were allegedly beaten, taken to the Indo-Bangladesh border, were not far away from their village and were pushed back in Bangladesh on No-Man’s land.

Surprisingly, the Border Security Force also did not work properly here, not consulted with the local police before pushing these citizens across the border at gunpoint.

It was not a separate incident and many such cases have also come up from the Assam border in recent weeks and months.

But for local administration…

Fortunately for these four and recent young people of Bengal, the West Bengal government was eventually alerted.

The local police took action and verified that they were actually an Indian citizen. The information was shared with Bangladesh and four have returned homes.

The incident was widely reported in the media. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she believes that the Prime Minister is not aware of these matters and she said that he would attract attention on them. It was not stated that any of the Maharashtra government, police or BSF apologized for their failure to follow the appropriate process to raise false questions on the citizenship of Indian citizens.

Meanwhile, harassment and anxiety have hurt families, but these poor people are happy to come back and want to leave the nightmare.

They are not a type to take the police or government to court. But this is hardly the first time that something like this has happened. This was just another episode in the last one horror series that is playing out of the 1990s.

Even such events are now played, there is also a feeling of déjà vu.

For the day when LK Advani was the Home Minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, India had already seen such a drive to take out ‘Bangladeshis’. Horror was played in pictures and on television, although not yet on social media. Even then, pictures of men stood up or standing together, standing together, as they were waiting for ‘exiled’ on the Indian border in Bangladesh.

This is a trend that has intensified in recent years. Now every week, in a state or any other, Bengali speaking men and women are being raised on suspicion of being ‘intruders’ by the police.

The latter itself is under pressure to weed ‘foreigners’ and is working on instructions to investigate the Union Home Ministry that Muslims are Bangladeshi. Catching a ‘criminal’ displays their hard work in the following orders.

Earlier this week, in Rajasthan too, many Bengali speaking men were raised and despite their opposition and production of documents, the police suspected them of being an illegal Bangladeshi immigrant.

So, more than the same… or this time there is something new in the water?

In the 1990s, alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were always tracked in states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat or Delhi National Capital Region.

Activists in Maharashtra, especially the Jhowri Bazaar in Mumbai, and Surat in Gujarat, many of them were highly skilled, to cut and establish a lot of demanding artisans, diamonds and other stones in jewelery and precious gems. Other people were daily wage employees in construction jobs or other unskilled labor; His wives often served as domestic aid in local homes or services and industries, where women formed the wholesale of the workforce.

When the first wave of goals began, the train load of Muslim artisans and Bengali laborers returned to their villages in the 1990s, demanding the support of the government in front of West Bengal headed by CPI (M). They landed at places like Ulubaria in Howrah district, and went back to the villages of Hooghly, Malda and Murshidabad districts.

But now, in May 2025, more than 500 persons of Bangladeshis have been scored from Maharashtra, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Delhi NCR, Haryana and Goa. They were not sent home or went home; They have been briefly deported. More than 500 people have been scored from Assam and from West Bengal.

In Assam, Shona Banu of a 58 -year -old woman, Barpeta said that she and 13 others were pushed to the border, even though she was an Indian citizen. She has returned since then.

An international consent?

It is a familiar trop, still – and not only in India.

This recently attracted international attention when the United States launched its current cross-country drive on the orders of President Donald Trump to identify, detect, detain and deport individuals. May Or may not be citizens – as well as individuals who may be connected to criminal or terrorist networks, those who may be guilty of violating laws or not, those who can pose a threat to national security or not. And the American Immigration Police is taking this drive with speed, gusto – and shameful disability.

Refruiting the exile of India citizens, however, is bad rule – no matter the Trumpian example.

The exile of illegal immigrants is a different case, of course, and a continuous process. The Border Security Force regularly pushes the people of Bangladesh back who intend to illegally enter India.

To deport Indians, however – as Advani is also revealed – is disabled, politically shameful and expensive.

Determining the identity of Indians, especially Muslims and Bengali-speakers, are also expensive- only one state, the practice of listing Indians in the national register of citizens in Assam, was spent by Indian taxpayers for Rs 1,602.66 crore by March 2022.

This is probably a comfortable practice for the BJP’s enthusiastic supporters, which is convinced that Muslims will soon defeat Hindus in states like West Bengal, Assam and even Jharkhand, when the saffron party announced that it would identify every illegal Muslim immigrant and send them back to Bangladesh.

Why is this, for the purposes of raising large -scale gathering at the time of election, like a slogan ‘One is (United, VR Safe) formed a political meaning for the Indian Janta Party during the Jharkhand elections in 2024.

Is the drive average for the average citizen, then?

Following concrete and coordinated action by the police and central agencies, a few thousand ‘suspects’ have been thrown into a campaign in several BJP ruled states at some cost.

It does not do class with propagation or even cost.

Economic pressure forces people to get better opportunities elsewhere in some parts of the world. Union Home Minister Amit Shah performed well for years as illegal migrants and performed well to recall the number of remedied Gujaratis. Is there a large number of illegal Bangladeshis in India?

To fulfill Indian citizens of being aliens and illegal immigrants on it, because they speak Bengali – or eat Murri (Puffed rice) and craving fish, or wears Madras-Czech Lungis-and Because they are Muslims Is actually anterior.

As a government policy and as a means of governance, the practice of excluding ‘illegal’ on suspicion rather than verified information is disabled, expensive and just a bad strategy.

Some people in Bangladesh can well infiltrate our borders and get fake documents with the help of local political parties, which are cheap labor to take advantage of both of them and as captive voters. But to target Indian citizens, to polarize people and communal, exposes both calls and disability.