By Ashis Biswas
Attempts made by groups of people to sneak into India illegally from Bangladesh into Tripura and West Bengal have increased in recent weeks. The Border Security Force (BSF) and various state police have stepped up vigil to prevent the infiltration to the extent possible, more so in view of the continuing violence in Bangladesh. But the situation is not improving as the political turmoil engulfing India’s immediate neighbours in the east has fuelled fears of displacement among large sections of targeted minority communities.
The weather has also made the task more difficult. Prolonged spells of winter fog are helping the criminals attempting illegal border crossings/movements, adding to the woes of the guards/troops on border duty. Security personnel are currently under great strain with hundreds of people seeking shelter in India, while large numbers of Bangladesh citizens are heading for the Indo-Bangla border.
Such mass migration efforts usually follow a particularly prolonged spell of violence/vicious attacks carried out against Hindus and Christians, by armed Islamist militants in Bangladesh. Reports emanating from the border areas of Tripura say over 110 Bangladeshi and Rohingya infiltrators have been arrested from Agartala Railway station and nearby areas. Most of them had plans to head for Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and other Indian cities to look for jobs.
The BSF, Tripura Police and the Government Railway Police (GRP), as reported in the NE-based media, said that the number of Bangladeshi infiltrators arrested in the last several months had exceeded 600. The number of Rohingya held was around 65. The latter had escaped from camps in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, close to Chittagong (Chattogram). A number of Indians, said to be close to 30, who helped the illegal aliens to secure vital documents were also arrested.
It was easier for media to get information of the arrests made in Tripura and Meghalaya, states which share the international border with Bangladesh, it wasn’t easy in West Bengal. Unlike in the NE states, West Bengal authorities have not held regular, or even occasional, briefings on the number of arrests of Bangladeshi or Rohingya infiltrators. Nor parted with information on steps taken by police forces of West Bengal to protect people from lawbreakers who have been making the illegal border crossings.
Strange though it may sound, West Bengal-based BSF authorities, too, are following the example set by the state’s police forces, of maintaining a calculated silence on matters involving public interest. Judging by coverage in West Bengal-based print media, they have not followed the media-savvy approach of their counterparts in the NE states.
Whatever the reason, neither the West Bengal Government, nor the BSF based in West Bengal, have adhered to norms of transparency. In a democracy, the authorities are duty-bound to sensitize people of the dangers they faced, especially in matters concerning law and order, as well as social security/safety.
But all through the tension-packed situation that has impacted the ties between West Bengal and Bangladesh, following the August 5 coup in Dhaka, there has not been a single comprehensive public message or speech made by the West Bengal Chief Minister, or by the Chief Secretary, never mind the atrocities being committed against Hindus and Christians by armed mobs in Bangladesh.
A senior BSF official said that there are stretches along the WB-Bangladesh border where there were no barbed fence nor have measures involving use of modern technology to stop illegal crossings. He said his views went largely uncovered in the mainstream media. According to other reports, drones have been used to ensure that the lack of fencing did not make it easy for smugglers or criminals to infiltrate into India.
Out of a total of around 4100 km long border, the West Bengal-Bangladesh stretch ran to a length of 2217 km, of which nearly 1000 km were not demarcated or fenced because of the difficult terrain. There were problems of land erosion along river banks on both sides, not to mention the shifting or currents and the seasonal appearance/disappearance of river islands (Char), which made erecting fences difficult. Naturally, the BSF found the going unusually hard and smugglers/criminals on both sides had been taking full advantage.
Even worse is the problem of the never-ending public spats between the BSF and the West Bengal Government. The BSF had long been complaining of the state’s inertia and reluctance to make land available for fencing, but the state government hasn’t been responsive. The general perception is that the TMC wanted to protect its Muslim vote bank. Result: The 1000-km border has remained relatively unguarded for years, even as infiltration increased greatly. The demographic composition of eight border districts has shown a major increase in Muslim population as per decadal Census figures.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee was the only major leader in India, incidentally, to declare that West Bengal would render humanitarian assistance to people who were escaping Bangladesh or facing attacks. The so-called Hindu nationalist government of the Bharatiya Janata Party at the Centre opposed Mamata’s stand and Bangladesh protested, reminding Banerjee that she had no place in shaping regional policy at the highest level between two sovereign countries. Be that as it may, such a conflicting, if not confusing, stand taken by West Bengal has upset both Delhi and Dhaka, adding fresh tensions to the already frayed bilateral relations. (IPA Service)
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