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Imported trouble - Outlook

Ashis K.Biswas ()
June 19th 1996

Title : Imported Trouble
Author : Ashis K.Biswas
Publication: Outlook
Date : 19th June, 1996

It all happened in Central Calcutta in broad
daylight. Four or five hawkers on Dharamtala Street
pounced on a customer, punching and kicking him. Their
ashen-faced victim, a middle-aged person, shouted for
help and attracted a crowd, which freed him. Between
anguished gasps for air, the man, his shirt torn, ex-
plained what had happened.BY the time he began the
story, his attackers had vanished.

The victim, Ghiyasuddin, claimed he had come to
the city from Bangladesh only a day ago."I was a
muktiyoddha(liberation fighter) during the struggle for
an independent Bangladesh. My attackers were pro-Pak-
istan razakars belonging to the AL Shams outfit, with
which our Awami League had a running battle. I did not
know they had landed here. They wanted to settle an
old score, because we kicked out the Pakistanis." The AL
Shams, along with the AL Bard and the Jamat-e-Islam, had
killed over 50 Hindu and Muslim secular intellectuals
hours before Dhaka fell.

A full quarter of a century after the birth of
Bangladesh, old scores are still being settled between
Urdu-speaking Muslims, who call themselves Pakistan-
is(Muhajirs), and Bengali-speaking Muslims long
after they have parted company. And the locale of
their fighting has shifted to India, namely West Bengal,
thanks to a porous, barely-guarded international bor-
der. The Muhajirs, settled in greater Calcutta, have
entered a politically assertive phase even as a
sleepy state administration and a conniving political
leadership have opted to look the other way. The
inexplicable abdication of political responsibil-
ity and administrative duties perturb social observers
as they ponder the import of the ominous Muharram day
violence that cost five lives in south west Calcutta.

Residents of the area, comprising the Muslim-
dominated pockets of Ekbalpore, Mominpur, Kidderpore and
Garden Reach, are convinced that illegal immigration
from Bangladesh has a direct correlation with the chang-
ing crime profile.

"Over the decade, there has been a subtle change
in Garden Reach and other areas as the population in-
creased rapidly. Most were newcomers, speaking Urdu
or a Bihari version of Hindi. Local MLAs, especially
Kalimuddin Shams, the high-profile deputy speaker,
recommended that hundreds of these people be issued
passports and ration cards. There was no inquiry,"
recalled a senior retired police official.

Tapan Sikdar, former state BJP president,
put it more concretely:"Some five year ago during a
survey in Garden Reach, we found the population to be
around 2,92,0000. But the number of ration cards was
3,98,000, most held by members of a particular communi-
ty. Our Border Security Force authorities admit that
for every person held for illegal entry, at least 10
escape the net. If in Calcutta, Urdu-speaking Muslims
pose a problem, in the districts, it is the Bengali
Muslims from Bangladesh."

The ceaseless flow of illegal immigrants
has fundamentally altered the ethnic character areas of
settlement and distorted the essentially secular am-
bience."This year, the processionists treated an appli-
cation to the police - to include a road through the
Hindu-dominated Dompara as part of the proposed route -
as official permission. When the 1,500 marchers went
through the prohibited area, and the police stopped
them, all hell broke loose. The marchers hurled
petrol bombs at the troops who resorted to lathi
charge, tear gas and even firing to check the mob. As
matters went out of hand, curfew orders had to be
imposed," said a publisher residing at Ekbalpore.

The police put the blame on a new breed of commu-
nity leaders-the local toughs-and the politicians."Ear-
lier, respectable maulanas or other religious leaders
headed the delegations to discuss Muharram proces-
sions. This time we were asked to talk to two hench-
men with a police record, Munna and Ladla,"said a
police officer.

As usual, political parties are divided over
the issue. Local Congress leaders Saugata Ray and Ran-
jit Dhar admits that there is considerable movement of
people without passports or other valid papers. But
the ruling Left Front's stance can be summed up in the
words of Ashok Ghosh, chairman of the Forward Block,
the party to which the controversial Shams
belongs:"What infiltration? There is movement of people,
from here to Bihar to Delhi, maybe to Bangladesh, how
can we stop it? Why pick only on south west Calcutta,
what about such movement in Rajabazar, Park Circus, or
Metiabruz?"

Chief Minister Jyoti Basu mentioned the Ban-
gladeshi migration problem for the first time in his
budget address last year. This was bolstered by the
last census figures which showed a tremendous
increase in the number of Muslims in the state by
36.89 per cent between 1981-91, compared to 24.75 per
cent for the rest. In 14 districts, the Muslim popula-
tion has risen faster then the Hindu population.

This is accompanied by a simultaneous decrease
in population in the camps maintained by Bangladesh
authorities for stranded Bihari Muslims from around
8,00,000 to just over 2,25,000 confirming a large
scale movement of the people to destinations other than
Bangladesh.

Observers even fear a Hindu backlash if the trend
is not checked by the administration and the ruling
Left Front:"The city will become another Karachi un-
less sober leaders of both communities begin discus-
sions in earnest."





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