'Termite' Remarks: Indian media blasts BJP president

Indian media yesterday came down heavily on ruling Bharatiya Janata Party President Amit Shah for terming illegal immigrants from Bangladesh "termites" and "vermin" and said it "coarsens discourse and deepens divides" and risks "ruining relations" with the neighbour.

The Indian media also questioned Shah's reported claim that 4 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were in India.

"Unfortunate nations have heard such rhetoric before, from regimes which present a minority as the foe within, which must be eliminated. Politically, the challenge is to neutralise the most powerful taboo, against the taking of human life, by constructing the minority as less than human. Conveniently, vermin do not have human rights," the Indian Express said in its editorial.

In this context, the daily recalled National Socialism propaganda in the Nazi-ruled Germany that branded the Jew as sub-humans who were "eating at the vitals of the nation", "posters in occupied Poland depicting them as "typhus-bearing lice" and more recently, the genocide of Tutsis in Rwanda in 1994, which took eight lakh lives, and "inflammatory" speech by Leon Mugesera of the ruling MRND party, in which he urged the elimination of "scum" and "cockroaches".

"Such dangerous precedents should urge the president of the ruling party to temper his speech," the editorial commented, adding, "calling them [illegal immigrants] names at this point is scarcely good politics."

"Besides, it could have disturbed relations with the only neighbour with whom this government has succeeded diplomatically," the Indian Express said, adding, "Fortunately, Bangladesh has declined to be ruffled, and dismissed Shah's outburst as the statement of a party functionary, rather than a government communication."

The newspaper expressed the hope "that the ruling party will show similar maturity, even after the event and discourage its leadership's appetite for such classical exercises in dehumanisation."

The Times of India in its editorial said Shah's comments about illegal immigrants from Bangladesh went against the positive developmental campaign of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"Shah, who has characterized migrants as infiltrators who are 'termites,' has struck a contrary note by invoking a politics of fear and paranoia," said the editorial, opining that the BJP chief's "negative tactic elicits comparison with Trump's characterization of Mexicans as 'rapists' in the US."

"If the idea [of Shah] here is to appeal to the base of BJP's electoral support, then it's worth noting that Trump's current popularity is declining and a strategy of appealing only to the 'base' is yielding diminishing returns. The core vote alone won't be enough for BJP in 2019 [general elections]," The Times of India editorial commented.

"Shah's tirade against illegal infiltrators risks being exposed as a gimmick and ruining relations with Bangladesh," it added.

"In fact, Shah's termite comment has already attracted Dhaka's ire with the latter describing it as an unfortunate remark. Bangladesh is perhaps the only country in the neighbourhood today that has excellent relations with India. Credit for this goes to the Awami League dispensation in Dhaka," the newspaper said.

"But if BJP continues with its anti-Bangladeshi tirade it will harm the Awami League at the upcoming polls in Bangladesh and put the future of India-Bangladesh ties in doubt," the editorial observed.

"A witch-hunt for enemies 'within' is not going to help either domestic politics or foreign policy. Its outcome can only be a self-goal for BJP," it cautions.