India’s forced return of Sonali Khatun, a nine-month-pregnant woman wrongly deported to Bangladesh, exposes a startling failure of basic governance.
Khatun and her eight-year-old son reentered India in West Bengal’s Malda after the Supreme Court ordered the Modi regime to bring them back. She had been pushed across the border on June 27 after Delhi police claimed she and her family were Bangladeshi citizens.
Justice Joymalya Bagchi rejected that accusation, noting that her father’s Indian citizenship was unquestioned and that she and her children are citizens under the Citizenship Act.
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee asked, “How are Indian citizens being labelled Bangladeshi?” Her question stands unanswered.
Prime minister Narendra Modi got caught with his pants down deporting Indians, and the country deserves accountability for a mistake this grave.