Kolkata, May 31 (IANS) The CPI(M) Polit Bureau, on Saturday, condemned the “push-back” and deportation of suspected Bangladeshi citizens through the Indo-Bangladesh international borders.

The CPI(M) has demanded that the government should deal with those who have entered the country illegally according to the laid-out procedures.

“In the aftermath of the terrorist attack at Pahalgam, the BJP-led state governments and the Central government are targeting particularly Bengali-speaking Muslims and have, without any verification, pushed them to Bangladesh. According to reports, some genuine Indian citizens, too, are arrested and pushed into Bangladesh. Even though citizens who were declared foreign nationals by the Foreigners Tribunals, but whose appeals are still pending before the Assam High Court and the Supreme Court, have been forcibly pushed back. This should not be allowed,” the CPI(M) Polit Bureau said in a statement.

It also accused the Assam government of aggressively pursuing its communal policies and has now even decided to arm the ‘indigenous people’.

“This is a dangerous decision with far-reaching ramifications. The government must maintain law and order and also prevent infiltration. Pushing them back and aiming at communally selected sections of the people are not the solutions,” the Polit Bureau said in the statement.

The CPI(M) leadership also demanded that the government should not use religion to identify illegal migrants.

According to it, those who have entered the country through illegal means should be allowed access to a fair trial.

“Poor and undocumented migrants, who enter the country without any mala fide intentions, should be treated with dignity and dealt with according to the laid out procedures,” the Polit Bureau statement read.

The West Bengal unit of the BJP claimed that whenever any strong action is taken against the infiltrators, the leftist parties always oppose the movement of the government, just out of their appeasement politics. “In West Bengal, while the ruling Trinamool Congress is encouraging illegal infiltration, the CPI(M) is opposing actions against the same illegal infiltrators elsewhere. Both Trinamool Congress and CPI(M) are two sides of the same coin,” a state committee member of the BJP said.

–IANS

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