He calls illegal Muslim immigrants ‘termites’, vows to throw them into Bay of Bengal

The head of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party took his invective against illegal Muslim immigrants to a new level last week as the general election kicked off, promising to throw them into the Bay of Bengal.

The head of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist party took his invective against illegal Muslim immigrants to a new level last week as the general election kicked off, promising to throw them into the Bay of Bengal.

Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Amit Shah referred to such illegal immigrants as “termites”, a description he also used last September, when he drew condemnation from rights groups. The US State Department also noted the remark in its annual human rights report.

“Infiltrators are like termites in the soil of Bengal,” Mr Shah said last Thursday at a rally in the eastern state of West Bengal, as voting in India’s 39-day general election started.