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Operation Sindoor: Over 2,000 illegal Bangladeshis sent back by India
More than 2,000 alleged illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have been sent across the India-Bangladesh border since Operation Sindoor was launched in the early hours of May 7, according to a report by The Indian Express. The action follows a nationwide verification drive initiated after the April 22 terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam.
In addition, a similar number of immigrants have voluntarily approached the India-Bangladesh border in recent weeks, reportedly driven by fear of being caught in the ongoing crackdown.
Crackdown widens across states
The large-scale operation is being carried out along the Bangladesh border in Tripura, Meghalaya, and Assam, the report said. Gujarat was the first state to initiate the roundup and accounts for nearly half of those deported so far. Other significant contributors include Delhi, Haryana, Assam, Maharashtra, and Rajasthan.
'It is an ongoing process, and all states which have cities with significant economic activity are rounding up such illegal immigrants after verification of their documents," The Indian Express quoted a senior government official as saying.
The report also noted that the immigrants are being flown to the border in Indian Air Force (IAF) aircraft from different parts of the country. They are handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) and held in makeshift camps. After brief detention, they are given food, basic assistance, and Bangladeshi currency if needed, before being escorted across the border.
Why some states were chosen first?
According to the report, states like Tripura, Meghalaya, and Assam, where the BJP is in power, were selected for the operation not because of their political alignment but due to the relative ease of carrying out pushbacks. An officer told the news daily that despite perceptions, the BJP has only a limited presence in Meghalaya.
West Bengal, where Trinamool Congress is in power, was reportedly considered less suitable due to the complex nature of its border, which runs through villages and even homes. Strong familial ties across the border raised concerns about potential law and order issues.
Voluntary departures on the rise
Fearing detention, many undocumented Bangladeshi immigrants are reportedly choosing to leave the country voluntarily. The report claimed that nearly 2,000 immigrants have come forward at the border in recent days, prompted by extensive media coverage of the ongoing crackdown.
The operation has proceeded smoothly so far, with the Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) said to be cooperating with Indian authorities. While some long-term residents have shown reluctance, the majority—mainly poor labourers—are willing to return, the report said.
The report noted that many migrants are aware they face detention or imprisonment if caught, and lacking the resources for a legal fight, they prefer to reunite with their families across the border.
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Hindustan Times
6 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
BJD questions BJP's ‘double-engine' governance as Odisha's central grants dip
Odisha's inability to fully utilise the 2024-25 central funds has led to a 18.19% reduction in federal grants a year after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) swept to power in Odisha on the back of its electoral promise to accelerate development through 'double engine' governments in the state at the Centre. Officials aware of the matter said the central grants to Odisha rose by 15.48% under the previous Biju Janata Dal (BJD) government in 2023-24 compared to 2022-23, thanks to effective lobbying and better expenditure planning. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union home minister Amit Shah led the BJP's 2024 poll campaign in Odisha, focused on the potential benefits of the 'double engine' government, helping the party win 85 of the 147 seats in the state assembly and 20 of the 21 Lok Sabha seats. Officials cited above said funds for centrally sponsored schemes are released in instalments, with subsequent tranches contingent on spending previous allocations. 'Odisha's inability to fully utilise these funds led to reduced disbursements. If the state cannot demonstrate effective spending, the Union government holds back further release of funds,' said an official, who did not want to be named. Officials said effective lobbying with the Union government could have secured higher allocations. 'In 2023-24, the central grants to Odisha rose by 15.48% compared to 2022-23. It shows effective lobbying and better expenditure planning,' said the official. Funding under centrally sponsored schemes has, since 2015-16, accounted for over 20% of total federal grants for sectors such as education, health, employment, and the welfare of Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. States with lower implementation capacity, such as Odisha, face challenges in executing these schemes effectively. Officials said the requirement to prepare district and state agricultural plans for schemes like Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, an incentive-based programme where allocations are not automatic but tied to planning, has compounded the problem. The central grants to Odisha declined from ₹21,500 crore in 2023-24 to ₹17,000 crore under housing, irrigation, and water supply schemes, Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichayi Yojana, and Jal Jeevan Mission. The funding under Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY)-Rural went down from ₹4,310 crore in 2023-24 to ₹825 crore in 2024-25. The allocation under PMAY-Urban funding declined from ₹296 crore in 2023-24 to ₹0.73 crore in 2024-25. The funding under the rural connectivity scheme, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, dropped from ₹1,262 crore in 2023-24 to ₹712 crore in 2024-25, from ₹146 crore to ₹32 crore under Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sichayi Yojana, and from ₹1,581 crore to ₹368 crore under the Jal Jeevan Mission. Odisha did not get anything in 2024-25 under the agricultural development scheme, Rashtriya Krishi Vikash Yojana, which provides 60% central funding. In 2023-24, it received ₹223 crore under the scheme. A review of the spending in February this year found that at least 16 of 44 departments failed to spend even half their allocated funds by January end. Departments such as disaster management (13.5%), sports and youth services (19.77%), steel and mines (20.5%), mission shakti (23%), Odia language, literature and culture (27%), tourism (38%), energy (46%), transport (47%) failed to spend 50% of their budgets by January-end. Odisha finance secretary Saswat Mishra, whose department deals with the central allocations, did not reply to a questionnaire. Opposition BJD leader Debi Prasad Mishra said the reduction in funding showed the chief minister Mohan Majhi-led government's inability to govern. 'In the last year, the government has done nothing except rename schemes introduced during the previous Naveen Patnaik government and change the colours of buildings,' said Mishra. He asked if the BJD could get more funds under the centrally-sponsored schemes, and why the Majhi government was unable to do so. 'This shows the double-engine government was just an election hype.' BJP lawmaker Akash Dasnayak called the dip in the funding an aberration and said Modi wants to see Odisha developed and is ready to help with more funds. He said funding for a scheme like the PMAY may have come down due to the ongoing survey of beneficiaries. 'Once the survey is complete, we will get more funding.'
Indian Express
12 minutes ago
- Indian Express
Raajneeti turns 15: Prakash Jha says Katrina Kaif learnt her speech for 40 days, Anjum Rajabali had his doubts about Ranbir Kapoor
Aamir Khan may be planning to make a film series on the Mahabharata and then hang up his boots. But filmmaker Prakash Jha and screenwriter Anjum Rajabali did that 15 years ago. Their 2010 political drama Raajneeti was a modern adaptation of the epic, yet they maintain it never started off as that. 'Unlike Gangaajal (2003) or Apaharan (2004), Raajneeti didn't happen after witnessing a specific incident. It was a broader socio-political drama based on reality, but resonating with the Mahabharata. The characters are all the same everywhere, as they were back in the epic,' Prakash Jha tells SCREEN. 'There's something for everybody — drama, crisis, highs, lows — everything you can think of about human existence, it's all there capsuled in the Mahabharata. So every Indian creator keeps drawing from it,' he adds. 'We didn't start out by wanting to adapt the Mahabharata. We just allowed it to enter our script. It's a sprawling epic. But you're not writing an epic, you're writing a screenplay,' Rajabali points out. After serving as a script consultant on Jha's last two films, he was approached by the director to co-write a film on electoral politics. 'I wasn't interested in that,' recalls Rajabali. But he proposed to Jha that the filmmaker visits him every evening from 7:30 pm to 10 pm. They'd brainstorm over 'two shots of vodka' for seven days, in the middle of which Rajabali recalled they began veering towards the Mahabharata. The idea of power conflict and cousins competing with other brought them closer to the broad strokes of the epic. But Rajabali was dead sure he didn't want Karna to be the hero, much to the surprise of Jha. 'Karna has the usual characteristics of a hero: he's the underdog who comes up fighting against injustice. But I told Prakash you must not look at only as destiny, but also in terms of the choices he made. He wholeheartedly went with Duryodhana, knowing fully well he's an evil guy. That lends the story a dystopian end — who do we side with, because they're all evil,' reasons Rajabali. Enter: Arjuna. 'Prakash said Arjuna is a boring character, who's a good family member and a good warrior. But I brought his attention to Arjuna's arc — he doesn't want to enter the war, but Krishna gives him the perspective on why he should fight for a cause. Then their dark deeds begin to surface. So I asked Prakash, 'What if Arjuna begins to revel in that?' Because he's suddenly a demon who has been unleashed,' says Rajabali. The Arjuna of Raajneeti — Samar Pratap Singh — is the proverbial outsider. The youngest son who comes back from his school abroad for a few days, only to get caged in the politics of his family and that of the state. 'His father is killed, brother is jailed, so he has to enter politics out of anger. Then the guy who's researching Victorian poetry begins to do one dark deed after another. If you notice, even the topic of his research has to do with violence in the 18th century. So there's a fascination with violence, which was already coming out via academics,' underlines Rajabali. He recalls the time when he got a call from Jha who said they've found their Arjuna: Ranbir Kapoor. 'Who, Rishi Kapoor's son? That's how I knew of him,' says Rajabali, reminding us that Ranbir's debut film, Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Saawariya (2007), hadn't released then. 'Have you seen it? Can he perform?' 'I haven't, but my instinct says he can.' 'I trusted his instincts, but I had my doubts,' reveals Rajabali. A few days after Jha began filming in Bhopal, Rajabali visited the set. Jha showed him the scene in which Ranbir is just sitting on a chair and looking at the television news of his father's death and brother's arrest. The camera goes from right to left on his face. 'That boy was speaking volumes with his silence. There was no prep. He's an intuitive actor, a complete natural. I was completely convinced. Ranbir had very few lines, but boy, did he leave an impact! He's the best actor we've had in more than a decade now,' says Rajabali. If Ranbir was a revelation, Katrina Kaif wasn't far behind. 'We couldn't pick Draupadi's angle as it is because the fight between husbands for her and all that jazz doesn't quite work today. But it stayed with me after reading the epic that Draupadi loved Arjuna, but he was too focused on ambition. So there was an unrequited love,' recalls Rajabali, who again was concerned if Kaif would be able to pull off the Hindi heartland dialogues with the right accent. 'Once again, Prakash was convinced she'd deliver,' he adds. 'Katrina is a very hardworking actor. She worked with so much dedication. She learnt her lines for 30-40 days so she could deliver them confidently,' Jha recalls. Rajabali did find issues with her accent during the filming, but changed his mind during the dubbing sessions. 'The amount of effort that the girl put in… she managed to deliver word to word in near-perfect diction,' says Rajabali. It's been 15 years, the party in power has changed, so it makes sense for us to pose the question to Rajabali: Was Katrina Kaif's character inspired by Sonia Gandhi? He refuses, but sees the parallels. 'There are various archetypal characters in life and in good literature and cinema. Rajiv Gandhi was the proverbial outsider. He didn't want to join politics. But then he did, and he won. Then he gets killed. There's a widow. Katrina looks half white. I wasn't concerned, but I anticipated such allegations,' says Rajabali. He then reveals that as the Congress party got concerned closer to the film's release, they inserted their representative in the Central Board of Film Certification. 'This was an open secret. There was no contention with the film though, except one word. When two people at a chai shop are discussing election results, a laconic man, buried in the newspaper, says, 'Le jaegi vidhwa sab samet kar.' They objected to 'vidhwa' because that might be confused with Sonia Gandhi. I didn't agree with it, but Prakash said we'd have to remove it. So the word was changed to 'bitiya,'' says Rajabali. Other changes in translating the Mahabharata to the world of Raajneeti included eliminating Nakul and Sahadeva because they're quite similar, and choosing Arjun Rampal's character Prithvi as Bhima over Yudhishthira. 'Prakash recommended we take Bhima because there's an innocence to him. He loves his family. He's loud and uncouth, but there's an endearing quality to him too. He's gullible so can get tricked very soon, so you need to protect him,' says Rajabali. Another change was to make their Krishna far more quieter than he's in the epic. In fact, Nana Patekar is the only actor in the ensemble who doesn't get a monologue. Even Naseeruddin Shah does, within a cameo. 'He doesn't pick up any weapons, but only operates on plotting. So that's how I asked Nana Patekar to be in his body language,' says Jha. 'He's a thinking person, a strategist. He'd just process everything and come up with just one line that Samar catches up on. He's the man to watch out for. He forces you to pay attention to him precisely because he doesn't speak much. So you always wonder what he's up to,' argues Rajabali. He quotes the example of the scene in which Patekar's character comes up with the perfect candidate to compete with Surya (Ajay Devgn's character based on Karna). 'It's obvious he's the natural choice to win in a Dalit constituency. Nana Patekar doesn't say anything, but he just goes there and announces their candidate as Surya's father. That's a masterstroke,' points out Rajabali. Jha recently admitted that he has the story for the sequel ready. 'I have an idea with me. But we just haven't gotten to it yet because other commitments keep coming up,' says the filmmaker, who's been busy with his MXPlayer show Aashram, his next film Janadhish, and other projects as a producer. 'It can be quite rich because it can reflect today's challenges for politicians. The Mahabharata is infinite so there is a lot of potential,' argues Rajabali. Jha points out that most characters from the first part, including those of Devgn, Manoj Bajpayee, and Arjun Rampal, are dead. So would the sequel continue where we left the other characters? Also Read — Dune director Denis Villenueve was impressed by Ranbir Kapoor after watching Raajneeti on a plane: 'He stood out among such an ensemble' 'It may start from there or once we work on it, it may be something completely new,' says Jha, with a shrug. But where would Samar, Indu, and Mama be today? Or what would their Arjuna, Draupadi, and Krishna up to to now? 'I can't possibly answer that because I may give you the idea Prakash and I just end up doing. So I have to be a little discrete about it,' says Rajabali, in true Krishna fashion.
The Wire
13 minutes ago
- The Wire
The Inclusion of Muslim Leaders in Delegations Shows That When the BJP Needs to Borrow, it Does
Menu हिंदी తెలుగు اردو Home Politics Economy World Security Law Science Society Culture Editor's Pick Opinion Support independent journalism. Donate Now Politics The Inclusion of Muslim Leaders in Delegations Shows That When the BJP Needs to Borrow, it Does Badri Raina 36 minutes ago The majoritarian rulers of the day swallowed the necessity that Muslim participation was required in the delegations to be sent to argue the Indian case. An all-party delegation including BJP leaders Baijayant Jay Panda and Nishikant Dubey, AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and others during a meeting with the Secretary of State to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Algeria Selma Bakhta Mansouri, in Algiers, Algeria. Photo: PTI Real journalism holds power accountable Since 2015, The Wire has done just that. But we can continue only with your support. Contribute now The ruling BJP has not a single Muslim representative in parliament, and in the central Cabinet. The politics of the 'nationalists' over the last decade especially, both at the centre and in the states they rule has been solidly rooted in Hindu consolidation. Prominent leaders of the party, such as Suvendu Adhikari in West Bengal have been heard to voice the sentiment that the party does not need Muslims, and should not work for their interests so long as they do not vote for the BJP. Quite the other day, a minister in Madhya Pradesh was pleased to dub Colonel Sofia Qureshi as 'their sister', meaning that of the terrorists lodged in Pakistan. The party has not touched him yet; only a court has taken suo motu cognisance. On June 1, the redoubtable Home Minister, Amit Shah, who declaims rather than speaks like his superior, Narendra Modi, told a rally in West Bengal that Mamata Banerjee, the Trinamool Congress leader and chief minister of the fraught state, did not support operation Sindoor because she was catering to her vote bank; inference: that Muslims were not in favour of the military action against Pakistan. When the Modi-Shah regime understood that Muslims were needed in the delegations sent abroad And yet, when it came to persuading countries worldwide of the justice of India's case against Pakistan, the Modi-Shah regime understood that Muslims were needed to be part of the delegations sent abroad. Not having any of their own, barring Gulam Ali Khatana, a nominated member, they thought nothing of drafting ten Muslim members from opposition parties to plead the Indian case. This is what is called Chanakya ki neeti. Being asked, these perfectly patriotic Indians could not have refused the task, although their parties felt justly hurt by not being given the democratic privilege of nominating their members for this onerous responsibility. Whether it was right or wrong for the opposition members to side-step party prerogative in the matter will no doubt surface as an inner-party issue in the days to come. But here is the point: The majoritarian rulers of the day swallowed the necessity that Muslim participation was required in the delegations to be sent to argue the Indian case, especially in the rather crushing absence of any suo motu declarations of support from even such countries as may have been expected to come forth without equivocation. So, not having any of their own, the BJP did not shirk the move to call upon Muslim leaders from other parties, including, perish the thought, the remarkable Asaduddin Owaisi who has repeatedly found himself reviled by right wing social media trolls as a Pakistani lover. Kudos to him that he set aside what must be his infuriating hurts from the mouths of the bigots on the right, to speak with eloquence for the republic and its conditional values in stark contrast to the 'failed state' of Pakistan. Now, the million dollar poser: can the nation expect that just as the ruling right wingers woke up to the necessity of owning Muslims in the matter of sending delegations abroad, they will likewise acknowledge the weighty truth that Hindu-Muslim togetherness is even more sharply needed internally if the realm is to achieve its many rosy goals of advancement? Will that realisation lead to any substantive and far-reaching rethink in the driving think tanks that have shaped the politics of the sectarian right wing ever since the establishment of the RSS a century ago? The question is poignant given that the chief of that organisation has only the other day yet again called for: Hindu unity, and designated 'Hindu Rashtra' as the 'eternal truth of this land. The different standards of the BJP at home and abroad Equally interesting will be what intercessions may now be made into that conundrum by the ten Muslims leaders who went along so cheerily with the official delegations to speak for an India that continues to treat Muslims badly. And, why will not the BJP send similar delegations all over India to replicate the unity that has been engineered to present a patriotic face abroad? Will leaders who were drafted from opposition parties, Muslims especially, demand this of Modi and Shah, and, if they do, on what grounds may such a suggestion be denied at home? So laudable has been the role played by the drafted leaders of the opposition that in some of their interventions they have merrily contradicted what they have said on record before on such issues as formed the agenda of their case-building, all, no doubt , in the national interest. Would this not have been a watershed moment if those that sent them abroad now took due lessons from their pleading for secular reconstruction here at home? Badri Raina taught at Delhi University. This piece was first published on The India Cable – a premium newsletter from The Wire & Galileo Ideas – and has been updated and republished here. To subscribe to The India Cable, click here. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Make a contribution to Independent Journalism Related News We Disagree With Modi Govt But Will Cooperate As Its Delegates Abroad: John Brittas, Asad Owaisi Lone NC MP in All-Party Delegations to Not Join His Group, Cites Urs at Native Village Pak's Support to Terror, Op Sindoor, Indus Water Treaty: What the All-Party Delegations Will Address On Operation Sindoor Delegations, TMC Cries Foul Over Govt 'Unilateral' Call on Delegates After Rijiju Dials Mamata, TMC Picks Abhishek Banerjee to Join Op Sindoor All-Party Delegations What Could Be Shashi Tharoor's Political Endgame? Rijiju Jumps to Defend Tharoor as MP Faces Congress Ire Over 'LoC Never Breached' Remark Why Modi Won't Let Go of the BJP's Reins Govt to Send Multi-Party Delegations Abroad for Outreach on India's Position on Terror, Conflict with Pak View in Desktop Mode About Us Contact Us Support Us © Copyright. All Rights Reserved.
