Hemant Soren Says 'Rat-Like RSS Invaded Jharkhand,' BJP Hits Back With Bangladeshi Infiltrators Charge

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday launched a blistering attack on Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren over his ‘Rat-like RSS invaded state’ remark by questioning his silence on the Bangladeshi infiltrators entering Santhal Pargana to encroach on land.

BJP leader Shehzad Poonwalla said, “Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren calls nationalists and people elected by the public ‘chooha (rat)’. But he doesn’t say anything about the Bangladeshi infiltrators who enter Santhal Pargana and encroach on land, because this pertains to his vote bank.”

Soren while addressing a rally in Sahibganj said that RSS is invading Jharkhand like rats and destroying it, inviting sharp criticism from the BJP. “Chase such forces away when you see them entering your villages with ‘Handia’ and ‘daru’ (locally brewed liquor),” Soren said.

He further accused the BJP of creating communal disturbances and tension ahead of elections by sowing discord between Hindu and Muslim communities, specifically pointing to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

Soren also dismissed BJP’s allegations of demographic changes in Jharkhand, suggesting that critics should look into the demographic data of neighbouring West Bengal. “They talk about spoiling the demography and Bangladeshi intruders. I would like to tell them to go and get the data from the Centre and see in which district and in which state it has changed.”

Soren Accepted Demographic Change In Bengal: BJP

Poonwala flagged Soren’s remark that no demographic change has occurred in Jharkhand, but it has happened in West Bengal and asked, “Who has had governments in West Bengal?”

“Not BJP. Left, followed by the TMC. So, he has accepted that there has been a demographic change in West Bengal which was ruled by the Left as well as Mamata Banerjee,” the BJP leader said.

He further narrowed down his attack on the INDIA bloc by saying that one party of the opposition alliance is targeting another which shows that the entire opposition front neither has any mission nor any vision.

“Did he (Hemant Soren) attack them (West Bengal government) inadvertently or deliberately, he knows it. But the truth has come out that a demographic change in West Bengal has indeed occurred. But the question is that this is happening in Jharkhand as well,” the BJP leader said.

The changing demographics in Jharkhand’s Santhal Pargana region have already reached the High Court for argument. Last month, the court observed that the state government remained silent on the reason for the reduction of the tribal population in the Santhal Pargana region.

The remarks were made in the court’s order passed while hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea highlighting alleged illegal immigration from Bangladesh in the region, leading to demographic change of the state.