About three decades ago. In 1995, the alliance of the two Hindutva parties Shiv Sena and the BJP came to power in Maharashtra for the first time, Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi sat in the chief minister's seat in Mumbai, the commercial capital of India. But needless to say, the rush and full control of that government was in the hands of Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray.

As soon as the BJP-Shiv Sena government came to power, the 'Bangladeshi Khedao' campaign was launched in Mumbai and suburban Ghinji slums. Bengali-speaking Muslims were picked up by the police from every corner of the city, and those women, men and children were handed over to the rooms of the Kolkata-bound Bombay-Howrah mail.

Without properly verifying the real citizenship of the accused, they were given the title of 'illegal Bangladeshis', as a result of which there were often complaints that Bengali Muslims in West Bengal or Assam were also being harassed in the raids.

Since a state government in India does not have the power to deport these so-called illegal immigrants from the country, the Maharashtra government is responsible for leaving the state.

Many of them used to get off at Howrah station and join the crowd again, some of them would come back to Mumbai again in search of bread. Balasaheb Tagore's fight against the so-called Bangladeshis continued forever!

In his late life, when the Shiv Sena was no longer in power in the state, the veteran leader would regularly address party rallies of the 'Me Mumbaikar' (We who are from Mumbai) group.

And to the Shiv Sainiks, he used to say that Mumbai's thirst is quenched by the water of Tansa Lake, Bangladeshis are coming and drying up the water of that lake. If Lake Tansa dies one day these Bangladeshis will run away, but we have to stay in Mumbai – so drive them out now!

The crackdown on illegal Bangladeshis, however, began even before Mumbai in the Indian capital of Delhi – when a BJP government came to power in Delhi in December 1993, with the party's veteran Punjabi leader Madanlal Khurana as chief minister.

The BJP also started campaigning in an attempt to consolidate the capital's Hindu vote bank, saying that Bangladeshi Muslims who had illegally entered India and were overrun in various areas of the city, including Silampur, Nizamuddin or Zafarabad – must now be expelled.

Months before the BJP came to power, a political campaign was also launched in Delhi under the leadership of Madanlal Khurana, named 'Ilan-e-Jung' (declaration of war)!

The then MP for East Delhi constituency was BJP hardline leader BL Sharma Prem, who was a step ahead of the chief minister on the issue of Bangladeshi expulsion.

If Madanlal Khurana's government showed any laxity in the campaign, he would threaten that the Bangladeshis should leave Delhi by sending down the military if necessary. And when there is any vote in the capital, all these talks and campaigns will increase as usual!

Narratives of 'refugees' and 'infiltrators'

There was definitely an anti-Bangladeshi dimension to the violent agitation and 'Bengal Kheda' campaign in Assam led by the student organization 'ASU' from 1979 to 1985 - but it spread to the rest of India mainly from the 1990s.

The process of targeting alleged Bangladeshis in India outside of Assam started primarily from Delhi and Mumbai – which has now gradually spread to cities as diverse as Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Pune, Jammu or Lucknow.

Analyst Rizwana Samshad also showed in a research paper published by Oxford University a few years ago – how the presence of Bangladeshi immigrants in Delhi became an important element in Hindu nationalist electoral campaigns since the 1990s.

The main theme of this research paper titled 'The Infiltrators of Delhi' was that in the eyes of Hindu nationalists, Hindu Bangladeshis who came to India are 'refugees' but Muslim Bangladeshis are 'infiltrators' or infiltrators, who are involved in conspiracies against the Hindus of India.

The anti-Bangladeshi campaign in India has taken a different dimension since the Narendra Modi-led BJP came to power in 2014 with a single majority.

After coming to power, Prime Minister Modi himself remained silent on this issue for a long time, but his 'deputy' and Home Minister Amit Shah did not have the courtesy or decency to attack the alleged illegal Bangladeshis!

In the last few years, he used derogatory terms like 'Ghushpetia', 'termite' against them in one public meeting after another. The small-big-medium leaders of the party were not particularly behind in this regard.

Just a few days ago, Amit Shah threatened in a public meeting in Jharkhand, if the BJP comes to power, these intruders will be hanged upside down! The Bangladesh government has already strongly protested this comment at the diplomatic level.

Now the question is, after the birth of independent Bangladesh in 1971, the enthusiasm-enthusiasm-emotional storm that swept India, how did those Bangladeshis become objects of contempt and contempt in the political landscape of India in just 20-22 years?

But to respect the sovereign Bangladesh, from Kashmir to Kanyakumari, small towns in India were named Bangladesh in 1971. In February 1972, Calcutta was rioted by the joint public meeting of Sheikh Mujib and Indira Gandhi.

The answer to the question of how the people of Bangladesh came to be frowned upon in this country so soon, probably lies within the religion-based politics of India.

The perspective of Bangladesh-Lagoa Assam may be a little different in this case, but how did this process spread in the rest of India so that many Bangladeshis or Rohingyas are now almost being abused in this country?

BBC Bangla spoke to international relations analysts, academics, BJP and anti-BJP politicians in Delhi on this issue - the gist of what they said is presented in this report.

Sriradha Dutta, professor of international relations at OP Jindal Global University near Delhi, has been practicing and researching Bangladesh for many years. He was associated with think tanks like VIF or IDSA for a long time, and was also the director of the Maulana Abul Kalam Azad Institute of Asian Studies in Kolkata.

Dr. Dutta was telling BBC Bangla that there is a direct correlation between the Hindutva ideology of the RSS and the fact that a class of politicians in India regularly insults Bangladeshis.

In his words, the simple thing is that Bangladeshis are meant here as foreign Muslims. And because the Sangh Parivar believes that Muslims are 'no do-gooders', i.e. unable to do any good, they are portrayed as such.

He says, now if I assume that the words Modi-Amit Shah are saying are a reflection of the ideology of the RSS, it will be easier to understand. Muslims from Bangladesh have entered this country illegally, and it is these Muslims who are torturing Hindus in that country - this narrative is used to target the attacks on the so-called Bangladeshis.

Sriradha Dutt also thinks that the process of portraying Bangladeshis as villains has spread from Assam to the whole country. In all states of the north-east, including Assam, there has always been a conflict between natives and outsiders. And there Muslims were taken to mean people from Bangladesh, no matter how long ago they or their ancestors came.

In 1998, the then Governor of Assam Lt. Governor SK Sinha's report to the President also made it clear that illegal immigration from Bangladesh is not only a threat to Assamese ethnicity or identity, but also a major threat to India's national security.

Sriradha Dutta says that SK Sinha's report also gave the Bangladeshi Takma a dangerous dimension for India. Later Amit Shah or other leaders of his party have now taken it to another height.

He also thinks that the fact that the top leaders of the BJP have recently become involved in the issue of Bangladeshi infiltration is related to the recent events in that country.

Dr. Dutta was saying that, unfortunately, the five hundred to six hundred students who died in the Bangladesh coup, the news of ten to twelve Hindus being killed has been given more importance in the media of India. A death is certainly not desirable either, but there is a difference of degree here.

He says that since the common people of India will judge Bangladesh only through the eyes of the national media, Bangladeshis in their eyes now mean Hindu oppressors. The businessmen of politics are taking advantage of this, calling Bangladeshi people even more!

What is the BJP's statement in this regard?

Anirvan Ganguly has long been associated with the Policy Research Cell, the BJP's policy research cell at the central level in Delhi. Although primarily known as a theoretical leader, he has also contested for the BJP in high-profile constituencies like Bolpur or Jadavpur in West Bengal.

Dr. Ganguly, however, was clear that his party always treated the common citizens of Bangladesh with respect – their objections were only to illegal infiltrators from that country.

In the words of Anirban Ganguly, I don't know who is saying, we despise Bangladeshis! Maybe an international group is trying to present the whole matter by distorting it. But here there is a big difference between ordinary Bangladeshi citizens and intruders, it must be understood first.

His comment, the words of the Minister of Home Affairs that you are referring to, to whom? Those who did not have to be expelled from Bangladesh, but those who entered India illegally on their own and have been earning and eating in this country for years! This action is being taken because they are creating problems where they are staying in India.

Anirban Ganguly also reports that Bangladeshi activists like Pinaki Bhattacharya are sitting in Paris making regular anti-Indian rants or cursing Indians – yet India has never said anything against him! He has freedom of speech, do what he likes, we don't need to see. We respect Bangladesh and its people.

But we have a problem with Bangladeshis like Jasimuddin Rahmani, who is now out of jail after being accused of killing bloggers in his home country, he says.

Anirban Ganguly says, we have a problem with those people from Bangladesh, who have entered the country illegally and are occupying the land of Hindus or tribals in India, taking a share of our wealth.

So BJP's claim is that what they mean by Bangladeshi bribery is nothing to do with a common peace-loving citizen of Bangladesh.

According to him, those in Bangladesh who are saying why India despises us, I would rather advise them to look at the Hindus of their own country. Those Hindus also built Bangladesh with their own sweat and blood, see first why they are being asked to leave the country. Do some introspection first, then rather think about what Indians are trying to say. The BJP leader said in a defiant manner.

'It's vote politics'

Sushmita Dev is a well-known and accomplished parliamentarian of India for the past decade. In 2014, he was elected to the Lok Sabha from Silchar on a Congress ticket, and later joined the Trinamool Congress, sending him to the Rajya Sabha. The politician has been working for a long time on the issue of infiltration in states like Assam and Tripura in Northeast India.

Sushmita Dev feels that the abuse of Bangladeshis as infiltrators is purely vote politics - when the truth is that neither the BJP nor any party government in India has ever been serious about addressing the infiltrator problem.

He was telling BBC Bangla that when the by-elections were held in Assam's Mangaldai Lok Sabha seat in 1979, the tribunal's investigation showed that 40 percent of the voters' names on the list were not Indian citizens. Assam was the first to be concerned about foreigners.

But the problem, he says, is that so far the problem of infiltration has only been fueled by the vote, and no attempt has been made to address it. That is why a class of people called Bangladeshis are still being harassed in this country.

Sushmita Dev's argument is that India should have raised the issue long ago in bilateral talks with Bangladesh if it really wanted to solve the problem of infiltration, so that a solution could be found.

He says, there have been so many summit level meetings between Narendra Modi and Sheikh Hasina, credit lines of hundreds of crores have been given to Bangladesh... but have we ever seen India objecting strongly to intrusion? did not tell

According to him, this problem has been deliberately kept alive, so that when the vote comes, the alleged Bangladeshis can be attacked as bribes. So in my opinion it is nothing more than a political gimmick!

He believes that the failure of the process of identifying foreigners in Assam in the name of creating National Register of Citizens or NRC is also a major reason behind this reality.

Sushmita Dev said that more than 1600 crore rupees were spent in the name of NRC, 3 crore people of Assam showed the paper, still the BJP government could not even notify the NRC.

He also said, what else can you call it but the final failure of the BJP? Amit Shah said he would find 40 lakh bribe takers in Assam with NRC, but he could not deport even one in the end.

This politician said that if there are any illegal foreigners in India, from identifying them to punishing them under the Foreigners Act or talking to the concerned country and sending them back at the end of the sentence - the entire responsibility lies with the central government.

The Trinamool Congress member of parliament said that by not doing all that and bringing a flop citizenship law, the BJP has actually made it clear that they want to keep the Bangladeshi card only as a voting tool.

Historical context of change of perspective

Sabyasachi Basurai Chowdhury was a professor of politics at the Rabindra Bharati University in Kolkata and was also the vice-chancellor of the institution.

He has been researching refugee and migration-related issues for many years, with particular interest in Bangladesh and South Asia.

Dr. Basurai Chowdhury was saying that the connotation (dyotna) of the word Bangladeshi has changed in the eyes of the average Indian compared to the way India used to see Bangladesh after 1971. It has a historical basis and context.

In his words, after the assassination of Sheikh Mujib, Bangladesh entered the era of military rule, General Ziaur Rahman replaced the Bengali nationalism of the liberation war with Bangladeshi nationalism. He associated Bengali language with Islam. But the process of increasing the distance started from then. During Ershad's tenure Islam became the state religion, the gap widened. Again after the return of democracy in Bangladesh when the BNP came to power, the separatists of Northeast India took refuge there, the bilateral relations soured.

As a result, Sabyasachi Basurai Chowdhury thinks that today a class of politicians in India who speak derogatory to Bangladeshis take advantage of this deterioration of relations. Again, issues like the Assam movement within India undoubtedly provoked it.

He also says that what BJP leaders-ministers say about Bangladeshis is a kind of 'rhetoric' - which is said keeping in mind the domestic audience in India's own politics. It means domestic consumption in English.

However, while pursuing domestic political interests, it is definitely damaging diplomatic relations, but when do politicians think about long-term interests?

Sabyasachi Basurai Chowdhury was also saying that Narendra Modi or Amit Shah recently raised the tone about Bangladeshi infiltrators - there is a deep connection behind the political changes in Bangladesh.

He thinks that the deterioration and uncertainty we are seeing in the bilateral relationship between Dhaka and Delhi since August 5 has also had an impact.

This expert on international relations and politics feels that the BJP leadership is clearly now playing the Bangladesh card more and more to consolidate Hindu and tribal votes in various states of India.

He said, however, this trend of using the Bangladeshi language as a proxy to do this politics of majority vote bank is not only of BJP - other major parties of India have also done more or less the same thing. Besides, the term 'Bangladeshi' in the political landscape of India has taken a complex and multi-dimensional shape in the last few decades due to all these factors.