They let us cook rice-daal for them, let us raise their children, trust us with the keys to house-home-jewelry. And then they turn around and vote for people who call us terrorists and want to cut us into pieces and bury us underground — A Bangladeshi taxi driver in Delhi, 2005

Bomb blast in Jaipur. What will we do now? Round up the usual suspects. Abdul, Rahman, Rahim, Karim, Salim. All you ‘illegal’ Bangladeshi immigrants within our borders. Report to the newest detention centres.

Remember, it’s not who you say you are, it’s what we say you are.

Bangladesh has emerged as the all-purpose ‘Nondo Ghosh’ (scapegoat) for Indian intelligence agencies. Attack on train station? Defused bombs? Bicycle bombs? Bag bombs? It must be the ultra-efficient, tentacle-spreading, just-in-time, always there spectre of ‘terrorist organisations based in Bangladesh’.

With meticulous efficiency, we are informed that the ‘modus operandi’ of the Jaipur blasts is similar to the UP court blasts (November 2007), Hyderabad Mecca Masjid blasts (May 2007) and Malegaon (2006). Every bomb blast is similar to the one before. They are all connected, except when they aren’t. Working on these leads, police are raiding Bangladeshi localities at Galta Gate, Baghrana, Ramganj, Subhash Chowk and Bhatta Basti in Jaipur. It’s also election season.

I remember (a little wistfully) the old days of media hysteria about ‘Pakistani’ militants. Bullet riddled bodies (dead don’t talk) and Pakistani passports (always in their pockets!). But Pakistan has become more complex, with its role in the US axis of willing. Anyway the public wants new, fresh faces. New borders. New panic.

... contd.