Many decades ago, much before the BJP had any influence on national politics and before lynch mobs were roaming the country, “Meena” came to work in my parent’s home and said that her husband’s name was Monto and they had a daughter called Muniya.As it turned out, Meena was actually Razia and Monto was Mustafa (a house painter) while Muniya was indeed Muniya. They had come from Metiabruz in Calcutta and were cautious about revealing their names to potential employers because even back then they were afraid of being identified as Bangladeshis. They were actually Hindi-speaking Muslims from Bengal. Anyway, to cut a long story short, Razia stayed with us for a decade before my mother helped her get a passport and a better job with NRIs who lived between India and the US. Last I heard, Muniya had graduated college.I ruminate because the events at the Noida housing society called Mahagun Moderne started out as a class conflict protests over a domestic worker being allegedly locked up but has ended up with the same old Bangladeshi bogey. The society has now reportedly decided to ban Bangladeshi workers from entering the complex, and the slum cluster near Sector 78 Noida where many of them live is also being demolished. It's a safe way to end the entire matter for some of the self-righteous middle and upper class people although the good news is that some residents are protesting. Of course, the Bangladeshi tag can be used to disenfranchise Indian Muslims who happen to be Bengali speaking the maid who was locked up is reportedly from Cooch Behar, West Bengal while those who ill-treat the domestic worker get away scot-free.Noida authority removed shops and shanties near Mahagun ModerneThat is the nub of the matter although the story of Mahagun Moderne works at many levels. What must first be called out is the Great Indian Middle Class'shocking lack of empathy for the poor and zero awareness of their rights. People expect maids to clean up after them but do not consider it clean for the domestic worker to use their toilets. When young girls are rescued from homes where they are beaten and not paid wages, employers are often surprised at what the fuss is about.They still believe they are doing the domestic workers a favour by giving them scraps of leftover food and shelter. Years ago, when I lived in a housing society in Mayur Vihar, east Delhi, I ended up breaking a friendship after a young girl from Jharkhand was working in a house where she did not get wages for three months because they thought she was stupid and ill-trained and, anyway, they were feeding her. The girl's aunt worked with me, hence I forced them to pay up and shifted her to my house.The great irony is that the friend who feigned ignorance about how his wife and parents treated the girl was a professional musician with pretensions to being radical: the kind of guy who would wear Bob Marley and John Lennon t-shirts with slogans about freedom and justice. A truly pathetic specimen of the Indian middle class.The good part of the Mahagun Moderne story is domestic workers asserting their rights. It's unusual and they need to get more organised about naming and shaming employers who fail to meet minimum wage requirement, do not pay, maltreat or impinge on personal freedoms of those who work for them. The other aspect is the communal subtext that¡¦s more complex but it's not new.Everyday across India, people are picked up, labelled Bangladeshi and packed off in trains to the border. It's a trend that will pick up in the heightened communal times we live in. Personally, I believe in human values over territorial definitions of nation states so I have no issues with anyone poor seeking to earn a livelihood.And let me return to my parents home to simply illustrate the fact that the Bangladeshi bogey has little to do with nationality but everything to do with religion. Besides Razia, who was not in fact Bangladeshi, the two other long-term employees have been Shri Ram the driver and Sharma the cook, both from Nepal. Shri Ram just retired after 25 years during which both his daughters got an education in my mother's school and one of them will graduate next year from Jesus & Mary College, Delhi University.The chef in my parents home is no Lucknavi khansama (cook) but Nepali Sharmaji who has learnt how to make kebabs, paaya and kormas. He has been around for two decades during which one of his sons has gone to Japan for a course. Sharmaji too will return to Nepal eventually. Shri Ram and Sharma have never had to hide their identities although they are from another country, while Razia, an Indian, had to pretend all those years ago.Saba Naqvi is a writer and journalist