Modi threatens to expel ‘Bangladeshis’

India’s prime ministerial frontrunner, Narendra Modi, courted yet another controversy when he threatened to deport “Bangladeshis” if his right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came to power.
“They have been given the red carpet welcome by politicians just for votes,” he said at a rally on Sunday in West Bengal. “You can write it down; after May 16, these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed.”
Targeting the state’s Trinamool Congress government, Modi said: “You are spreading the red carpet for vote bank politics. If people come from Bihar, they are outsiders to you. If people come from Orissa, they are outsiders to you. But if some Bangladeshi comes, your face seems to shine. This country cannot run like this. We won’t allow you to destroy the country for the sake of your vote bank politics.”
The reaction from the ruling Trinamool Congress government was swift and sharp.
“Modi does not know history. He does not know that speaking in Bangla does not make one a Bangladeshi,” said Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee. “Modi wants to divide Bengalis and non-Bengalis. Anyone who speaks in Bangla across India is branded a Bangladeshi. This is discrimination,” she said.
“The people of Bengal will throw him out,” she said. “Modi wants to pack off Bengalis from India. Who is he to decide?” she said, adding that Bangladeshis came to India under a pact signed in 1971 by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and Bangladesh President Sheikh Mujibur Rehman.