When Delhi police launched a drive to identify “illegal Bangladeshis” late last year, the mostly Bengali residents of Jai Hind Camp were able to show the necessary documents.

If they thought their troubles were over, they were wrong.

On a Delhi court’s order, authorities on Tuesday cut off electricity to Jai Hind Camp, a slum in Vasant Kunj that is home to about 5,000 people, mostly migrant domestic workers and labourers from Cooch Behar in Bengal, many of them Muslim.

The water tankers have also been stopped, forcing the residents to buy or carry water from a distance, and ration its use.

While the official reason is encroachment on disputed land — a case the court is hearing — the residents believe they are being targeted for being Bengali. It’s a suspicion they share with Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee.

The court has also ordered all the residents evicted, apart from three households that have obtained a stay.

“We are going to Patiala House Court on Monday to seek an interim stay (on eviction) for other residents too,” Shreya Ghosh of the Sangrami Gharelu Kamgar Union, a domestic workers’ body, told this newspaper.

But residents fear the Camp may itself be demolished, as has happened to several slums since the BJP assumed power in Delhi last February.

Electricity meters on the wall of a mosque in the Jai Hind Camp

“In December, our citizenship was verified. A few days ago, they disconnected our electricity. It feels like they are going to demolish our homes,” Fathima, a domestic
help, said.

Neelima Roy, another domestic worker who came over from Cooch Behar 25 years ago, said: “It hurts when someone calls us Bangladeshi. It feels terrible when someone tries to forcibly prove we are from Bangladesh.”

She added: “We are citizens of this country. We were born here.”

Roy alleged harassment during the citizenship verification drive last December, saying local officials had visited her brother’s home in Cooch Behar and stayed there for two weeks. Other residents had similar stories.

The Bengal chief minister on Thursday took up their cause in a post on X.

“Speaking Bengali does not make one a Bangladeshi. These individuals are asmuch citizens of India as anyone else, regardless of what language they speak,” Mamata wrote.

“I am deeply disturbed by the alarming news of harassment emerging from Jai Hind Colony in Vasant Kunj, New Delhi, a settlement predominantly inhabited by Bengalis who built the city as part of its unorganised workforce.”

RJD parliamentarian Manoj Jha and the CPIML Liberation too criticised the Delhi authorities for their actions against the slum dwellers.

Power woes

The residents, plunged in darkness after sundown in their rutted lanes, splashing with dirty, stagnant rainwater, complained that lifehad become intolerable without power in the heat andhumidity.

“The adults cope somehow but the little children, especially those between six months and two years, suffer the worst from the heat and cry all night,” Wasim, 48, said.

A child told this newspaper: “We are studying by candlelight; we are facing many difficulties.”

Many children are missing school because of their families’ struggle to finish cooking in the morning without proper water supply.

RJD leader Manoj Jha said what the authorities had done violated every norm of governance and the rule of law. “How can we say that democracy is safe?” he asked.

The CPIML Liberation said the Jai Hind Camp was an informal settlement recognised by the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board, thus entitling its residents to civic amenities and resettlement.

It said the residents were living in fear of demolition — although there’s no such court order so far — especially after the power stoppage.

Among the slums demolished in Delhi on the five-month-old BJP government’s watch are the Madrasi Camp, Wazirpur Camp and the Bhoomiheen Camp.

Mamata anger

Mamata in her post alleged the BJP government in Delhi had cut off power and water to the slum to drive out the residents.

“Their water supply was reportedly cut on orders from the BJP-led government. Electricity meters were confiscated and power was abruptly cut the day before yesterday,” she wrote on Thursday.

“Residents also claim Delhi Police, backed by RAF personnel, blocked private water tankers they had arranged and paid for. A forced eviction is currently under way despite the matter being sub-judice following another transgression last December by Delhi Police.”

Mamata accused the BJP of criminalising the identity and language of Bengali-speaking Indians, and treating them as “infiltrators in their own country”.

“There are over 1.5 crore migrant workers in Bengal who live with dignity. Butthe same cannot be said for BJP-ruled states, where Bengalis are being treated as infiltrators in their own country,” she wrote.

“Having failed in their attempts to deprive Bengalis in West Bengal, BJP is now exporting their Bangla-Birodhi agenda to other parts of the country in a strategic and systemic manner. Disturbing reports have emerged from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, and Madhya Pradesh, where Bengali-speaking individuals are facing targeted persecution. And now, this pattern of hostility has reached even the national capital.”

Mamata added: “We will not remain silent while people from Bengal are treated like trespassers in their own country. Bengal stands in solidarity with every oppressed voice. We will raise this issue in every possible forum.”