Sitting under a tin roof, 11-year-old Mithu fans her father with a scrap of cardboard. The battery torch flickers beside them. “Papa ki tabiyat aur bigad gayi hai,” she says. “Jab se bijli gayi, zyada bimar ho gaye hain.” (My father’s health has deteriorated after the electricity was cut.)For the past three days, Mithu and over 3,000 residents of Jai Hind Camp in South Delhi’s Vasant Kunj have been living without electricity — no lights, no fans, and no reprieve from Delhi’s humid monsoon.The electricity was cut after a civil court, in May, ordered disconnection over allegations of power theft. But what began as a crackdown on unauthorised supply has spiralled into a political flashpoint over citizenship, identity, and who gets to belong in the Capital.On Wednesday evening, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee claimed that both electricity and water supply have been cut for the residents, and accused the BJP-led Centre of “vendetta politics”.In a post on X, she wrote: “There are over 1.5 crore migrant workers in Bengal who live with dignity. But the same cannot be said for BJP-ruled states, where Bengalis are being treated as infiltrators in their own country. Speaking Bengali does not make one a Bangladeshi. These individuals are as much citizens of India as anyone else, regardless of what language they speak.”Tucked behind Vasant Kunj’s gated colonies, Jai Hind Camp is a dense informal settlement where residents live amidst scrap heaps and swampy lanes. Many here are Bengali-speaking migrants from West Bengal’s Cooch Behar, Malda and Murshidabad districts. Several families traced their arrival to the early 1990s, and said they work as ragpickers, domestic workers, carpenters, and drivers in affluent homes nearby.When The Indian Express visited the site on Friday, residents claimed electricity was cut three days ago, and eight tankers that used to supply water was reduced to two.Story continues below this adInside Jai Hind Camp (Express/Saman Husain)Residents were seen walking to a camp set up by volunteers of the Sangrami Gharelu-Kamgar Union, which is collecting their documents to move a relief petition in court. Some residents had Aadhaar and voter ID cards. Others said they lost theirs in a massive blaze in 2014, when over 700 jhuggis were gutted.Echoing Banerjee’s comments, residents said they feel targeted due to their Bengali roots. “Police came here to collect our documents, then they went all the way to Cooch Behar to check if we migrated from there,” said Neelima Roy, who manages a temple.“They verified all our documents. Had we been Rohingya or Bangladeshi, then we would have been removed by now.”Gesturing at a mound of processed scrap, Mohammad Noor Islam, a scrap dealer, said: “This waste is not ours. It is produced by residents of Delhi, but we clean it and sell it. We are an important part of this city’s ecosystem.”Story continues below this adFatima, a domestic worker, said: “We work in the houses of Vasant Kunj… If we are removed, then who will work (for them)?”While a BSES official claimed the electricity supply was cut after prior intimation, residents said no such warning was given. “They came early in the morning and just cut off the wires,” said Islam. “We were ready to pay the outstanding bills.”A senior Delhi Police officer said, “We had gone there to ensure that a court order regarding electricity theft could be executed. Two power connections had to be cut, as per the orders, on Tuesday. Since then, there has been no police presence at the camp.”For the children at the camp, who are enrolled at a government school nearby, their studies have taken a hit. Antim Jha, a teacher with a local NGO called Asha Ki Kiran Shiksha Kendra, said, “We used to have 25 students in the evening shift. Now, only four-five turn up. There’s no light, no air.”Story continues below this adThe NGO functions inside the camp — out of one-room classrooms — to teach out-of-school children, aged between 5 and 12, before enrolling them in school.The power cut comes amidst multiple demolition drives in other Delhi settlements. BJP leaders had earlier remarked that homes being demolished belonged to “Rohingya” and “Bangladeshis” occupying public land. At a recent rally at Jantar Mantar, AAP leaders claimed that the BJP’s comments have hurt the sentiments of Delhi’s migrant population.The 2020 court order behind the electricity cut stems from a civil dispute filed in 2016 by residents of Masoodpur. They had claimed bhumidar rights over 29 bigha and 13 biswa of land on which Jai Hind Camp stands. Their names were recorded in revenue records (khatoni) from 1984-85 till 2016, which they had produced before the court. In 2004, the land was vested in the gaon sabha by the SDM of Vasant Kunj — a move contested by the families.During a 2015 visit, two plaintiffs had discovered three electricity meters installed on the plot — one at a mosque, two at a temple. The court noted that these meters had been used to distribute electricity to the entire Camp through unauthorised sub-meters.Story continues below this adThe defendants claimed the mosque and temple existed before the electricity meters were installed in 2014. But the court found no evidence that either place of worship existed before the meter connections and flagged unusually high bills: Rs 3.48 lakh for the mosque between September and October 2022, and Rs 6.52 lakh for the temple between August and October.“It is unlikely that a masjid would consume electricity worth over Rs 3 lakh a month,” the order had observed. While the court did not directly order demolitions, it recently exempted three long-settled families from eviction “until the next hearing”.“The court is mindful of the fact that electricity is a basic amenity and even illegal occupants are entitled to it,” the judge wrote. “However, no one has the right to supply electricity illegally to illegal occupants.”As night descended at Jai Hind Camp, residents placed candles at their doors while battery fans were rotated from room to room.Story continues below this adA cloud of uncertainty hung over them. “Only if we earn can we put food on our table. Where will we go?” asked Islam.