A mit Shah has been running around Bihar claiming that Rahul Gandhi’s Voter Adhikar Yatra is aimed at protecting “ghuspaithiye” — “infiltrators”. The hollowness of this claim was exposed at a BJP workers’ meeting last month, when the Union Home Minister asked the audience what the topic of Gandhi’s yatra was. Much to Shah’s dismay, some party workers yelled: Vote Chori!

Its vacuousness was further underscored by Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar’s refusal to say how many foreigners had been identified under the Bihar Special Intensive Revision (SIR). He deflected a direct question with the claim that the data was available with officials at the state level.

Of course, the Narendra Modi government’s “ghuspaithiya” narrative is really a dog-whistle against Indian Muslims while

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