Sweeping migrant exodus puts Gurugram police in messy spot

For the third time, Gurugram, ‘the millennium city’, is battling a migrant exodus. The city is on its knees amid the collapse of its tertiary service sector — with maids, sanitation workers and others fleeing without notice. As chaos reigns, what started off as a local civic issue, has quickly snowballing into a national political controversy.Why are migrants from Assam & West Bengal fleeing Gurugram?The exodus of migrants has been triggered by an ongoing verification drive by the Gurugram police. The police, following Ministry of Home Affairs orders, have been making efforts to identify illegal Rohingya and Bangladeshi immigrants.The police intensified efforts in this regard this month, reportedly rounding up 250 people, who were ‘detained’ in four centres in the city.Cops raided several migrant colonies as the drive sparked panic among the city’s migrant workers. Many now fear being wrongfully targeted for speaking Bengali. Videos of alleged police torture (majority of which the police claim are fake) are making rounds across social media, adding to the panic.What is the current situation?Many parts of Gurugram are facing an acute shortage of domestic workers and garbage collectors after scores of them fled the city. While residents rue the fact that they have been left high and dry, the worst impacted is urban sanitation. In Gurugram, 80 per cent sanitation workers are migrants from Bengal. With such workers fleeing in panic, door-to-door waste collection and waste lifting from designated points have been severely impacted. The situation is worrisome for the city, which was already struggling with a waste exigency.Local resident welfare associations (RWAs) have been rallying behind migrants. Employers of these migrants, and RWAs, are making alternative accommodation arrangements for domestic workers so as to mitigate the impact of the exodus.What do the Gurugram police say?After facing intense backlash, the Gurugram police have suspended the detention of persons suspected of illegal immigration. The police have, so far, identified 10 illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, and are in touch with Union authorities in regard to their deportation. The police have denied any harassment or torture, and have blamed fake social media reports for triggering the exodus. Senior police officials claim that panic is being spread from the states of Bengal and Assam, with a majority of the migrants receiving videos advising them to flee.What is the political implication of the verification drive & exodus?West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has accused the ‘double-engine’ (in power both in Haryana and the Centre) BJP government of misusing the verification drive to target Bengalis, claiming that it was, primarily, her voters who were being targeted. Banerjee has termed the move “linguistic terror”, claiming that people were being detained just for speaking Bengali. She alleged that the police had illegally detained 52 Bengali-speaking migrant workers on suspicion that they were illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Banerjee said the BJP could not use the drive to “delete” voters in Bengal, like they did in Delhi and Maharashtra. She has reportedly ordered the officials concerned to ensure that there is no delay in verifications, and West Bengal cops are working round-the-clock to ensure the same.She has been backed, in this regard, by Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Mitra, who called the Gurugram police’s holding centres “Nazi Germany centres”.The BJP has lashed out at Banerjee, accusing her of lying. Party leader Amit Malviya claimed that those being questioned were illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, who spoke Bengali but were not Indians. The BJP has accused the Bengal administration of enabling illegal immigrants to obtain Aadhaar cards and other documents before “infiltrating the country”.

Sweeping migrant exodus puts Gurugram police in messy spot

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Sweeping migrant exodus puts Gurugram police in messy spot

Sumedha Sharma

Tribune News Service

Unlock Premium Insights in This Article