'Locked in a Dark Room, But For What?': Detained Bengali Migrants Share Ordeal
The Quint spoke to at least five Bengali-speaking migrants who were allegedly detained in Gurugram.
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It was around 10 pm on 18 July. Thirty-year-old Mukul Hossain was eating dal-bhat-begun bhaja (rice, lentils, and aubergine fritters) his wife had made for dinner when the "policemen" showed up at his one-room tenement in Basai village near Gurugram's Sector 37. The men were in "civil uniform".
Thus began a trial that lasted five days.
'Locked up in a Dark Room'
All four detainees narrated the same story to The Quint. Men, who claimed to be from the "CIA of Sector 10", asked them to come out of their building with their documents. They were then told that their documents—including their Aadhar cards, ration cards, and voter cards—needed to be verified at Sector 10 police station. They were first taken to a dark room.
“The four of us were locked for a few hours with no light in the room save a sliver under the door. Our phones and IDs were confiscated,” one of the four detainees, Noor Alam from Sripatipur village in West Bengal's Hooghly, told The Quint.
Both Alam and Hossain claimed that next day, they were taken to a thana and later sent to a community centre doubling as a "detention centre" in Sector 10A. There, the four were given their phones back momentarily to contact their families. But when the families got to the makeshift detention centre, they found the gates locked. They were even denied permission to meet the detainees.
They remained there for five days. At the centre, Alam and Hossain described the conditions as "jail-like".
It was only after Hossain's family managed to get in touch with some local Trinamool Congress (TMC) workers from Balaghat MLA Manoranjan Byapari's office that the detainees' case moved.
While Alam decided to stay back in Gurugram and was able to resume his job as a delivery partner for a food aggregator app, Hossain has returned to Hooghly. The Quint also spoke to Anesur Rahaman and Alam Ali, the two others detainees. They narrated identical tales over the phone from their homes in Mulaibari village in Hooghly.
But it isn’t just these four men.
Since the Haryana Police started its crackdown on “illegal Bangladeshi immigrants” in mid-July, hundreds of Bengali-speaking migrants have allegedly faced a similar ordeal. Some have even alleged abuse and torture.
Daily wage labourer Jasimuddin Hossain from Maldah district in Bengal, who lives in Chakarpur locality of Gurugram with his mother and elder brother, narrated a similar tale to The Quint.
On 15 July, Jasimuddin was picked up by men and taken in an unmarked vehicle to a dark room in the name of “verification”. Eventually, he was transferred to a holding cell where he claims he spent seven days.
“My family paid a local tout money to arrange my release even though I have all my documents with me. I don't know if he was with the police or not,” the 20-year-old claimed to The Quint.
Jasimuddin Hossain inside his room in Chakarpur.
(Athar Rather/The Quint)
'Extra-Legal' Detentions, Ad Hoc Procedure
In each of the cases, victims claimed they were taken to multiple locations before being left at one of the "holding facilities", in the words of the police. There were four detention centres in total, located in Badshahpur, Sector 10A, Sector 40, and Sector 1 in Manesar.
While Gurugram Police confirmed to The Quint that detentions were taking place, it evaded answering questions on the exact number. Calling it an “ongoing process”, PRO Sandeep Kumar said the detentions were part of a drive to identify and deport illegal immigrants. “Those with legal documents need not worry,” he said. He also denied allegations of “illegal detentions”.
Nevertheless, human rights activists and lawyers have raised concerns over the detentions being driven more by religious and linguistic profiling than by genuine concerns about illegal immigration. The possible involvement of vigilante or anti-social groups that seem to have got a free hand in terrorising people is also palpable.
“We have no clear evidence but reports and eyewitness accounts of unmarked vans picking people up as well as reports of custodial and non-custodial torture suggest the hand of outside forces,” Aditya Krishna, Supreme Court advocate and member of All India Lawyers Association for Justice (AILAJ), told The Quint.
When asked if police were picking people up in plainclothes using unmarked vehicles or allegedly releasing them in exchange of money, Kumar dismissed them as "rumours", adding Gurugram Police is looking into it.
Doors of houses of migrant workers locked in Gurugram.
(Photo: Athar Rather/The Quint)
A Quiet Exodus in Gurugram's Underbelly
Haryana is the latest in a string of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)-ruled states to implement an anti-immigrant drive. Similar drives have been carried out by authorities in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Assam following a notification by the Ministry of Home Affairs, circulated to states and UTs. In all these states where the drives have been implemented, Bengali-speaking Muslims have been the majority of victims of deportation.
In the absence of clear guidelines from the police or from authorities, and fearing what many perceive as an “anti-Bengali”, “anti-Muslim” political push, Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants from Gurugram have been leaving en masse in what has become a quiet exodus in the underbelly of Gurugram's sprawling metropolitan.
The scale of the exodus has impacted the affluent, too. Within days of news of the crackdown on Bengali-speaking migrants, reports of garbage piling up on the streets and the swanky lobbies of highrise apartments of Gurgaon started doing the rounds on social media platforms and local Resident Welfare Association (RWA) groups.
Discarded belongings outside locked homes of migrant workers in Bengali Market basti.
(Athar Rather/The Quint)
It is, after all, this group of migrant workers who forge the backbone of Gurugram’s socio-capital. They are the cleaners, the domestic workers, the cooks and nannies, the chauffeurs and gardeners, the local shopkeepers, and auto drivers.
"Every household in Gurugram has about two to four Bengali migrants working for them. Without us, the 'madam baaris' will fall to bits," Ronnie Miyan, a Bengali migrant who rides an auto in Gurugram, told The Quint. Despite having lived in Chakarpur for over a decade, he said he has has sent his family back, and will himself leave if the sitution continues to worsen.
In Chakarpur, buses have been plying twice a day, carrying migrant workers out of Haryana to Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Madhya Pradesh. Some buses were running especially on relay routes to Bengal when The Quint visited. Some locals claimed that due to high demand, some bus aggregators were charging Rs 1,500-2,000 per ticket.
In Bengali Market of Sector 49, the exodus has impacted migrants from other states too. With their Bengalis tenants leaving, landowners have started cutting electric and water lines in parts of the neighbourhoods. "With so few migrants left here, our slums could be the next to lose amenities," Hari Lal Paswan, a Bihari vegetable seller, said. Ram Samoj from Uttar Pradesh lamented that with the slums emptying out, there was no one to buy from them either.
Despite the mass reverse migration, the police and city administration have their eyes wide shut. While the police told The Quint that those who were detained in the last few weeks had mostly been released, the “verification” drive is here to stay.
Stories of detentions and viral (and mostly unverified) videos and photos of abuse and torture have deeply impacted the Bengali migrant workforce in Gurugram. “There is an atmosphere of fear. At least among those that remain,” said Minu Ara Parveen, a domestic worker from Dakshin Dinajpur.
Minu Ara Parveen's street has emptied out, with only four-five families from West Bengal remaining.
(Athar Rather/The Quint)
'Aami Bangali': Identity Politics and the Marginalised
The Trinamool Congress (TMC) has responded to the BJP’s attacks on Bengali-speaking migrants by launching a language movement in West Bengal to protect Bangla. The movement seems to have gained momentum following shoddily worded (and inaccurate) statements by authorities such as the Delhi Police’s reference to ‘Bengali’ language as ‘Bangladeshi’.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s language crusade has found few takers in Gurugram and nearby Delhi, though, where speaking in Bengali has become a litmus test for citizenship for many.
Chakarpur tea-stall owner Alauddin from North Dinajpur said that since he runs a shop, and his daughter is appearing for her Class 12 exams this year at a school in Gurugram, he cannot leave. "All we want is assurance from the government or police or someone that we will not be improperly detained or harassed," he told The Quint.
Alauddin, who runs a tea stall in Chakarpur, said he got his documents verified from his home thana and carries them on his phone now.
(Photo: Rakhi Bose/The Quint)
Political scientist Dr Adil Hossain, who specialises in the anthropology of citizenship politics, feels that apart from the obvious anti-Muslim bias, there is a definite caste angle to the detentions, which adds to the arbitrary profiling of people as Bangladeshis. Bengali-Muslims, belonging to marginalised castes, are more easily labelled "Bangladeshi" because of their accent and class background.
In Chakarpur, local resident and shop owner Abidur Rahaman corroborated the fact. “Most of the detentions and cases of alleged harassment have emerged from lower-caste bastis like the ones in Manesar, Badhshahpur, Wazirabad, and Sector 57. No police or local leaders and administration officers have come to help us.”
Rahaman added wryly that even politicians from back home in Bengal have not come to help, “even though our detentions have given the Mamata Banerjee government a poll agenda to unite her voters”.
A banner in the once bustling Bengali Market.
(Photo: Athar Rather/The Quint)
Back in his balmy home village in Hooghly, Mukul Hossain, who returned on 27 July, days after being released from detention, is foreseeing a bleak future ahead.
A carpenter by profession with no land to till or property to rent out, Hossain had hoped to build a better life for himself and his wife in Gurugram.
Now back home, Hossain said, "The Mamata Banerjee government asked all migrants to come back. So, I did. Now what? There are no jobs here. Will the government compensate for our job loss?"