Bihar SIR knocks the bottom out of Amit Shah’s ‘ghuspaithiya’ claims

How many foreigners were found in the electoral rolls of Bihar following the ‘purification’ carried out by the Election Commission of India?

The ECI, which conducted a Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls in Bihar between 25 June and 25 July 2025, has published final list of voters on 30 September.

The ECI claimed that 3.66 lakh more voters were deleted from the draft list, taking the total deletions to approximately 69 lakhs. The ECI also claimed, curiously, that 3.87 lakh objections in all had been received on the draft list on various grounds.

As many as 1087 objections were filed, it claimed, to delete names of voters who, objectors claimed, were not Indian citizens. The ECI published the names of the 390 such objections that it accepted after scrutiny, conceding that 390 ‘non-citizens’ were indeed found in the final list.

Yogendra Yadav, activist and a former psephologist, claimed in an interview to The Wire on Friday that only 76 of these 390 names from across the state were of Muslims while the rest were ‘Hindus’, possibly from Nepal. What was even more extraordinary, he found was that only 10 of these 390 ‘non-citizens’ were from Seemanchal in Bihar (Purnia, Katihar, Kishanganj and Araria), five of them being Muslims, and two of them were deceased.

So, if the ECI’s list is to be taken at face value, only 76 Muslim ‘infiltrators’ were found in the state.

What is the Election Commission hiding? Despite repeated calls it is yet to give out the number of ‘foreigners’ and ‘infiltrators’ found in Bihar. Yogendra Yadav urged even the Supreme Court Bench comprising Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi to direct the ECI to release the figure and the names of infiltrators.

Asked at a press conference in Patna on 5 October, the Chief Election Commissioner Gyanesh Kumar merely said that "the list of deleted electors in Bihar includes foreigners".

What does one make of the narrative being assiduously built about infiltrators from Bangladesh and Myanmar flooding the country? The bogey of infiltrators was raised by the BJP during the assembly election in Jharkhand and now is being drummed in Bihar, West Bengal and Assam, where polls are due.

However, if SIR in Bihar is an indication, this seems to be a case of much ado about nothing. Or, does the ECI have something up its sleeves? It has offered no explanation on why there are still voters (electors) in the final list who are either dead or are registered in more than one polling centre.  

Not just home minister Amit Shah but even the prime minister has been busy blowing the dog whistle. In his Independence Day address to the nation on 15 August, 2025 prime minister Modi warned the people saying, “These ghuspaithiyas (infiltrators) are snatching the bread and butter of our youth. They are targeting our country's daughters and sisters. These ghuspaithiyas are befooling innocent tribals and capturing their forest land. This country will not tolerate this."

He also announced a a high-powered demographic mission to tackle this crisis. There has been no further information on the demographic mission, unless the PM meant the ECI and the MHA in action.

It is in this context that one must view the controversy around Amit Shah’s deleted tweet. The 2001 Census had put the number of Hindus at 82.8 Crore and that of Muslims at 13.8 Crore. In the next census in 2011 number of Hindus were put at 96.6 Crore and Muslims at 17.2 Crore. Thus, during the 2001-2011 period, the number of Hindus went up by 13.8 Crore and that of Muslims by 3.4 Crore.

BJP IT Cell chief Amit Malviya on Saturday reiterated the contention of the ‘Office of Amit Shah’ that the “growth rate of the Muslim population between 2001 and 2011 had been 24.6 per cent (not the total Muslim population, as was erroneously posted earlier).”

While he is right in calculating the hike in percentage points from 13.8 to 17.2 Crore, he missed pointing out that the growth percentage of Hindus too during this period was a hefty 15 per cent plus. He is also ignoring the fact that since 1971 there has been a steady decline in the growth of Muslims population.

What is problematic is the subsequent claim that “infiltration is the main reason behind the continued disparities in population growth rates among religions as seen in the censuses from 1951 to 2011”.

There is simply no substantive evidence in support of this claim. There are refugees from Myanmar settled by the UN and given refugee status and cards. While the BSF mans the border with Bangladesh, much of which is fenced, a few thousand people every year are ‘caught’ by the BSF while trying to escape from Bangladesh.

If infiltrators numbering millions are indeed working in Bihar or elsewhere, it is the home ministry which must be held accountable.