India Bloc vs India Bloc? BJP leader takes a dig at Hemant Soren for questioning ‘demographic change’ in TMC-ruled West Bengal | Mint

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Thursday rejected the BJP’s charge that the state’s demography has changed. He said people in the state are living peacefully. “But these people [RSS, BJP] “They don’t like it when people live peacefully… so don’t let them enter their villages,” the Jharkhand chief minister said.

Comparing the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) to rats, Soren said, “These RSS people will enter the society like rats and destroy it.” He urged the people of Jharkhand to “identify these forces and not let them enter the villages”.

Jharkhand chief minister rejected BJP’s allegations of demographic change in Jharkhand and suggested that critics should check the demographic data of neighbouring state West Bengal.

Soren said, “Go and see what the data is of Bengal. Then see the data of different districts of Jharkhand. You will not find any change in the demography here…”

Soren also took a dig at Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and said, “…Assam CM comes to Jharkhand and criticises the people of the state and the state government…we will give a befitting reply to this…”

“They talk about distorting the demography and Bangladeshi infiltrators. I would like to tell them to bring data from the Centre and see in which district and which state the change has taken place,” Soren said.

BJP hits back at India Block

BJP spokesperson Shehzad Poonawala hit back at Soren’s “rat remark”, saying the Jharkhand chief minister “has admitted that there has been a demographic change in West Bengal, where the Left as well as Mamata Banerjee ruled.”

“He [Soren] Poonawala said, “Congress says there has been no demographic change in Jharkhand, it has happened in West Bengal. Whose government has been in power in West Bengal? Not the BJP. The Left, then the TMC.”

Poonawala said, “This means that one party of the Indi alliance is targeting another party of the alliance. There is no mission, no vision, no common stake, only ambition, their own delusions and their own corruption…”

“Did he [Soren] attack them [TMC and Mamata Banerjee] Whether it happened unintentionally or intentionally, only he knows.’ He said that Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren calls nationalists and people elected by the public ‘rats’.

BJP’s claim

Soren’s statement comes days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that infiltration from Bangladesh was “changing the demography of Jharkhand.” Prime Minister Modi had said in Jamshedpur on September 15, “Every Jharkhandi is feeling insecure because of infiltrators… JMM stands with Bangladeshis and Rohingyas…”

On Wednesday, BJP MP Ravi Kishan also accused the Jharkhand government of trying to change the demography of the state for political gain.

Meanwhile, Himanta Biswa Sarma informed that the Assam government will bring out a white paper on demographic changes in the state by April-May next year. “We are bringing out a white paper which will explain how the demography is changing in Assam at the polling booth level so that people at large realise the challenges. Yesterday I said in the Assam Assembly that by April or May we are bringing out a comprehensive white paper,” CM Sarma said.