Detect, Delete, Deport : Bengal’s new doctrine

ALL new governments start with a bang. The Suvendu Adhikari government, the first Bharatiya Janata Party government in West Bengal, is moving at insta-delivery speed as it puts in place markers and messages that will differentiate it from all past state governments. The markers are redefining the social landscape in visible ways, like the hurriedly established holding/transit centre in Maldah's English Bazar, that now contains nine suspected infiltrators, identified as Bangladeshis. The nine persons were intercepted, not arrested. They were not produced in any court to legalise their detention.There are other markers too, like moving the biggest Eid namaz gathering from its old spot, the iconic Red Road — in reality a black-topped road that cuts through the sprawling Brigade Parade Grounds. The message is unambiguous: Muslims may not occupy public spaces like roads for prayer meetings, as they have done for decades; they must be confined to and tucked away, where they are permitted to do so, by the new order.There was a 1950 law on animal slaughter that was more violated than observed, with indifferent implementation. The Adhikari government, in line with its Hindutva ideological roots, has cracked down on the brisk trade in cows that preceded Eid al-Adha, celebrated with offerings of qurbani (sacrifice). Cattle markets that would usually be busy with cows on sale are mostly empty. People who had reared cows anticipating profits to be made through sales are now anxious because of debts piling up and no market for their goods.Shops that once advertised beef as part of their menu have removed the items from the list. The non-availability of beef is a moment of rupture between modern Bengal and BJP-ruled Bengal, ending the time-honoured ritual of young liberal-progressive Hindus breaking the taboo, cutting free of orthodoxy and family constraints and declaring their transition into independent, critical adults.The new order of things is a May 23 directive from the West Bengal government to district magistrates "in accordance with MHA (Ministry of Home Affairs) guidelines." The order requires the district administration "to take initiative/appropriate action for setting up of holding centres in the district for apprehended foreigners as well as for released foreign prisoners awaiting deportation/ repatriation."Explaining the new orders, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari emphasised that "taxpayer money" would not be squandered on setting up "detention centres", as was done in Assam. Instead, holding centres would serve to hold detected suspected foreigners before they are deported to their home countries.The guidelines allow police to arrest suspected illegal immigrants/ infiltrators without warrants, who can be held for verification by the local district administration and then handed over to the Border Security Force, apparently bypassing the due process of law.Since Adhikari keeps repeating "Detect, Delete, Deport" like a mantra to ward off catastrophe, it should be presumed that his ready-to-be-deported illegal immigrants/ infiltrators are those whose names have been deleted. That poses the risk of cases like Shunali Khatoon's. A pregnant mother picked up by the Delhi police as a suspected Bangladeshi in June 2025, she was pushed over the border into Bangladesh, where she was detained in prison. The Supreme Court, on her father's appeal, instructed that she be brought back on "humanitarian grounds." Shunali Khatoon came home and voted in the April 2026 election, as an Indian citizen, verified and deemed eligible by the Election Commission. Her return was not a "humanitarian" matter; it was her right to return because she was an Indian citizen.The other problem with the mantra is that one category of voters — under adjudication for logical discrepancies — adding up to 27 lakh by one count, or 32 lakh by another, are waiting to be heard by tribunals set up by the Supreme Court. The tribunals will decide on their eligibility as voters. Beyond that, these persons, if dissatisfied by the tribunals’ findings, can go back to court. About 99% of the 1,400-plus cases decided by the tribunals, before the second phase of voting on April 29, were found to be eligible to vote.The arrest-hold-transit-deport method is obviously not perfect. Indeed, it is error-prone because it can be arbitrary. The Kilmar Abrego Garcia case in the US underscores the nature of the problem of acting in haste. Garcia, a US citizen, was picked up and deported to a maximum security prison in El Salvador.The modus operandi of the Adhikari government on sending suspected illegal immigrants/infiltrators of foreign origin, that is Bangladeshi or Rohingya, is similar to US President Donald Trump's second-term priority of swooping down on and scooping up illegal aliens, sending them to holding centres and transit camps and deporting them even as the constitutionally guaranteed due process of the law had not dealt with the specific cases of arrest and detention. The difference, however, is that in US, suspected illegal aliens are covered by the constitutional guarantee of due process and the Trump administration, like the BJP government, has had to walk back on specific cases of deportation because the courts in the US and India have not upheld these deportations.As a good newbie should, Adhikari is following orders issued by the Home Ministry that the Mamata Banerjee government had declared it would not implement. In December 2025, in the Lok Sabha, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had declared "our party's policy on infiltrators is Detect, Delete, Deport; the Opposition's policy is to normalise infiltration." Since Shah made this statement during the debate on electoral reforms and the Special Intensive Revision, it seems reasonable to assume that the purification of the voter list — separating the eligible from the ineligible — will be the easy-to-follow checklist.Deportation is what West Bengal will do as a good gatekeeper, protecting its Hindu majority from being swamped by "demographic change", especially in the border districts adjacent to Bangladesh. How Bangladesh as the destination for the deported will react is not Adhikari's problem. His job ends with handing over the detected for deportation to the Border Security Force. The international consequences of deportation on a large scale, given the limited legal remedies and protections under the Immigration and Foreigners Act, 2025, will be the responsibility of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.Past Bangladesh governments have rejected India's contention of its nationals masquerading as Indian citizens. It will be up to the new Tarique Rahman government to handle any problem that follows from Adhikari's actions.

Detect, Delete, Deport : Bengal’s new doctrine

As a good newbie should, Adhikari is following orders issued by the Home Ministry that the Mamata govt had declared it would not implement

Shikha Mukerjee

Detect, Delete, Deport : Bengal’s new doctrine

As a good newbie should, Adhikari is following orders issued by the Home Ministry that the Mamata govt had declared it would not implement

Shikha Mukerjee

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