The Modi government's "detect, delete and deport" policy to crack down on illegal immigrants, reinforced by the newly elected BJP government in Bengal, has further strained the already fragile relationship between India and Bangladesh.
Bangladesh's military has alleged that India's Border Security Force (BSF) waits "until it is dark" to "switch off the spotlights" before "pushing" people — identified as illegal Bangladeshi or Rohingya immigrants — across the international border, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Mohammad Ashrafuzzaman Siddiqui, director-general of the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), has criticised New Delhi's "push-ins", saying they bypass any formal repatriation process and leave scores of men, women, and children stranded in the "zero line" — a no-man's-land between the two countries.
Bangladesh has repeatedly cautioned that such "push-ins" risk further damaging efforts to repair bilateral relations, which have remained under strain since the ouster of Sheikh Hasina in 2024.
State minister Shama Obaed Islam warned unilateral deportations could hurt the fragile diplomatic thaw, as Dhaka seeks the former prime minister's extradition. India, where Hasina has lived in exile since her removal from office, has so far declined those requests.
New Delhi has defended its actions, maintaining that it had referred more than 2,680 cases to the Bangladeshi authorities for nationality verification, but "in many cases, this verification has been pending for more than five years".
A senior Indian official told the Financial Times that deportation is a process requiring coordination from both sides, which was "never forthcoming" from Dhaka.
The ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina following the massive student-led protests in Bangladesh has also emerged as a key factor behind the Narendra Modi government's intensified deportation drive.
The official argued that because of Hasina's close ties with New Delhi, India had "never pushed the envelope very strongly", but the change in government had altered that approach.
Bengal chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said last month that his government had pushed back 10,000 illegal infiltrators to Bangladesh and another 1,800 were waiting in 12 holding centres to be sent back.
********* Shortly after the BJP’s simultaneous sweep in the Bengal and Assam assembly elections, Dhaka had expressed hope that people will not be pushed into Bangladesh from the bordering states.
"I hope no such incident (push backs) will happen," Bangladesh home minister Salahuddin Ahmed told reporters in May when asked if he feared an increase in cases of people suspected of being illegal immigrants being pushed from India.
In Assam, chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has declared a “war” on illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, tagging them as threat to India’s “democratic fabric”.
The growing friction at the border continues despite the recently held director-general-level talks between the BSF and BGB in Delhi.
Faced with the influx of Rohingya Muslims fleeing persecution from Myanmar, Dhaka officials have said that Bangladesh cannot absorb further immigrants.
The deportation drive has become another irritant in relations with Bangladesh's BNP government led by Prime Minister Tarique Rahman. Since assuming office in February, Rahman has not visited India for talks with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, instead focusing on Malaysia and China on his first overseas trip.
Foreign policy adviser, Humayun Kabir, has criticised India’s deportation policy, saying they cannot "simply push people over the border".
Meenakshi Ganguly, Human Rights Watch’s deputy Asia chief, has also criticised the Modi government over its deportation drive primarily targeting Muslims.
In recent months, multiple media reports have suggested that the deportation drive has swept up not only Bangladeshi nationals—many of them poor migrants who have lived in Bengal or Assam for decades—but also Indian Muslims who were allegedly misidentified as illegal immigrants.
For many, the exercise has meant displacement despite having little or no connection with their place of birth.
With India and Bangladesh sharing a 4,096-km international border—the longest India has with any of its nine neighbours—the fallout extends well beyond the deportation drive. Alongside the contentious dispute over Sheikh Hasina's extradition, the long-pending Teesta river issue has emerged as another major source of friction in bilateral ties.