Author: Deepak Kumar Rath
Publication: Organiser
Date: July 7, 2002
The deportation of Bangladeshis
is a raging issue in Orissa. The Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik seems to
be very keen to repatriate them to Bangladesh.
Ironically the Hindu refugees are
also being targeted and are now being served quit-India notices although
they have been living in India since before 1971. Thousands of Muslim infiltrators
residing in Nawarangpur, Rajnagar (Kendrapara) and Malkanagiri are allegedly
creating tension between the tribals aid the Hindu refugees. They are also
involved in antinational activities in the border areas of southern Orissa
and coastal Orissa. The agony of the Hindu refugees has never been addressed
to. They want the State Chief Minister to go into the root of the problem.
The Hindu refugees demand justice
from the Government so that deportation is strictly in accordance with
law. The successive Congress Governments treated them as mere vote-banks.
The blind eye of the administration has helped in creating a number of
infiltrator colonies in southern districts like Malkanagiri, Nawarangpur
and Rajnagar. The Muslim infiltrators, the police has found, indulge in
anti-national activities and keep close contacts with ISI.
The detection of illegal radio stations
and the arrest of a few suspects in the Rajnagar area of Kendrapara district
on May 13, this year have brought to light the activities of infiltrators
from Bangladesh and the security breaches made in the vicinity of sensitive
defence installations. It is suspected that the transmission centres were
set up by Pakistan intelligence posts near the Wheeler Islands using human
intelligence operatives. It is also suspected that the radio stations were
used to disseminate coded information within a limited radius to some infiltrators,
who are suspected to be in the payrolls of foreign intelligence agencies.
In India there are officially one
crore and twenty lakh infiltrators but unofficially there are about three
crore Bangladeshi Muslims. The Bangladeshis who came to India before 1971
are considered to be refugees by the Indian Government. The Orissa Government
identified three thousand Hindu refugees and deported 21 of them straight-away
In the first phase the Orissa Government has identified 530 Hindu refugees
in Umarkot and Raighar, 530 in Malkanagiri and served quit-India notices
to 108 in Raighar, Umarkot and 70 in Malkanagiri.
But the State Government, it appears,
does not pay any attention to the Bangladeshi infiltrators, whose numbers
are alarmingly swelling. At the coastal belt of Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara,
Baleswar, Puri and Bhubaneswar, there is a large number of Bangladeshi
Muslims. They are engaged in various occupations such as netting the breed
of prawn, manufacturing leather items and ferry from village to village.
The 'State Home Department has hinted
that these Bangladeshis are engaged in anti-national activities. According
to media reports madarsas are mushrooming in West Bengal. The Chief Minister
of West Bengal, Buddhadeb Bhattacharya had recently remarked that the madarsas
are encouraging anti-national activities. Some of the madarsas are nerve-centres
of ISI activities. Sources say that there is a deep conspiracy being hatched
by the ISI and other fundamentalist Muslim organisations of Bangladesh
and Pakistan to destabilize India's economy, security, culture, demography
and democracy.
What is happening to Hindus in Bangladesh
is only too well known to be elaborated here. They are being tortured,
their houses burnt and they are being deprived of education, employment
and other fundamental rights. The Hindus are treated as second class citizens
in Bangladesh. Therefore, there is an exodus of Hindus from Bangladesh
to India which should be looked at from a humanitarian standpoint.
Steps have to be taken against the
infiltrators instead of deporting Hindu refugees. For the deportation of
Hindus there has to be conducive environment in Bangladesh. The Government
of India, International Human Rights Organisations and the Orissa Government
should exert pressure on Bangladesh Government to welcome their Hindu citizens
back and provide them a honourably living coalition.