@Joe Shearer
What does the average Indian think of this "shoot to kill" policy or is this something that is rarely discussed?
Can't say much about the shoot-to-kill part. That is something internal to the BSF, and when it comes into a newspaper account of a hawk-like talk by a prominent figure, normally does not attract any attention. I don't think it is top-of-the-mind stuff for Indians, but when they think about it at all, what comes across is the impact created by a relentless barrage of negative propaganda and hatred from the ruling party and its peripheral organisations.
The Home Minister talked about termites; the Prime Minister, after making an outrageous remark about Muslims, sidestepped the storm of criticism by claiming that he was talking about Bangladeshi infiltrators, and the furore died down. So, apparently, referring to infiltration by Bangladeshis is acceptable.
One of the most critical locations is Assam, and the mainstream Assamese, particularly those who do not live in the three districts south of the Brahmaputra, closest to Bangladesh, are downright hostile. Their Chief Minister, a Congress politician who shifted loyalties to get (and stay) in power, never lets a free moment go without saying something about the Muslims in those three districts, or about Bangladeshis.
In sharp contrast, the atmosphere in West Bengal is quite different. While the middle class, particularly in Calcutta, that resents both the decline in the state's finances due to bad administration by the political party in office (first the CPI-M, and now the Trinamool Congress) is one side, the working classes - in Calcutta and in the districts are lukewarm to the BJP's propaganda.
There is also low to absent hostility in Cachar and in Tripura. My information and perceptions about these areas are now a decade old, as I stopped travelling there (on work) around 2014.
In the rest of India, especially in the big cities, there are numbers (not huge, but present and visible) of Bengali maid-servants and security guards. The moment they are found to be Muslim, as some of them happen to be, they are immediately assumed to be Bangladeshis.
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
