Author: Saugar Sengupta
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 9, 2003
The 213 snake charmers from Dhaka's
Sava area have finally vanished into the night, and the zero line at Satgachi
has fallen silent. The area has been cleared of the "extra territorials",
giving all quarters concerned some much deserved sleep. According to reports
filtering in from across the border, the BDR has parceled the families
off to Patgram, from where they are to be sent home near Dhaka.
But first a quick look at the 4,000-km
long porous border with our eastern neighbour. The infiltration figure,
according to ballpark estimates, stands at over 15 million. Deputy Prime
Minister LK Advani had recently, while dwelling on the issue, quoted then
Home Minister Indrajit Gupta's speech in Parliament. Mr Gupta was concerned
at the way the Bangladeshi population in India, which then stood at over
10 million, had been growing in leaps and bounds.
Feels a professor of International
Relations at Kolkata's Jadavpur University, "Sustaining the flow of infiltrators
is in Dhaka's economic interest. Not only will it have those many fewer
mouth to feed... but there is also remittance from this side of the border."
Experts feel Bangladesh accepts a whopping Rs 15,000 crore or over a year
from it's "ex-patriots" in India. That "modest" figure is derived from
a back-of-the-notebook calculation of Rs 30-a-day saved by each Bangladeshi
currently living in India.
That in addition to the thousands
of crores, both in cash and kind, involved in smuggling, which accounts
for regular traffic of over five lakh cattle heads a month from each district
of West Bengal. Though all the border districts do not vouch for the same
kind of smuggling notoriety, there are eight districts bordering Bangladesh.
However, the districts of north Bengal are less likely to be affected,
partly because they are tribal-dominated, where ethnically dissimilar infiltrators
can be easily traced, and partly on account of South Bengal being better
connected with the hinterland, sources in the Murshidabad district administration
reveal. Moreover, a Satgachi-type incident is less likely to occur in the
northern part of the state in times to come, if the IG, BSF KC Sharma's
take on border fencing is to be believed. According to Mr Sharma, "Plans
are afoot not only to complete fencing in the area by 2007 but also to
install neon lights and reduce the distance among watchtowers."
According to sources, Lohapur village
in Birbhum and Chuapur Haat in Murshidabad district serve as major transit
points, with the former even providing night shelters for cows and camels
in transit. All at a nominal charge of Rs 15 per animal per night. According
to the latest report sneaking in, up to Friday night, over 10,000 cows
collected from districts of north Bihar and Bengal were waiting at Chuapur
Haat in Murshidabad district to be transported to Bangladesh, all despite
the heightened tension.
During the last fortnight, the BSF
has seized goods including four trucks, medicines, mobile phones etc worth
Rs 5,01,39,428 and 1032 cattle heads, including 10 camels, worth over Rs
67,00,000. Over the course of the operation, 771 Bangladeshis, including
36 smugglers, have been apprehended, reveal sources, adding the figures
pertain mainly to Murshidabad, Nadia, 24 Parganas and Malda. For the record,
the BSF shot down 39 "smugglers in transit" last year. This, even as smugglers
carrying 10 times the above mentioned figures manage to give security forces
the slip, taking advantage of their excellent chemistry with the locals.
The smugglers have themselves an
elaborate network along the borders, with informers and other moles placed
on duty. "They use crackers, torches and other means to alert the people
in transit when the BSF goes into action," says a top state police official.
He adds, "Local kingpins often lodge false cases against 'stricter' BSF
personnel, in their bid to buy peace, asking for BSF transfers from the
area. The police is often pressurised by politicians to file FIRs against
the BSF men."
According to senior district officials
in Murshidabad and Malda, Bangladesh owes the success of its thriving leather
and processed meat industry to the cattle smuggling across the border,
with scores of processing industries in that country buying Indian cattle
at throwaway prices and then sending the packed product to the Middle East,
at a huge margin. This explains why a discontinuation of trans-border smuggling
could dislocate the economy in that country. Recently, say sources, a sizeable
section of laid off workers, from the Bangladeshi jute industry, have joined
the illegal trade in cattle.
Politicians too are often found
guilty of patronising smugglers and other agents. Recently, a former Union
Minister and senior Congress politician allegedly threatened BSF personnel
in Malda for apprehending stolen cows bound for Bangladesh. Incidentally,
this is the same politician who had earlier been charged with siphoning
off tonnes of coal into Bangladesh.
According to reports, the Malda
district magistrate had, during the first week of January, shot off a letter
to the BSF top brass, asking that they rein in their jawans lest "drastic
action" be taken against them for "harassing" villagers, said sources.
The immediate provocation, it was learnt, was the BSF seizure of 118 heads
of cattle at Bakharpur village. While the BSF claimed the animals were
being smuggled to Bangladesh, the locals claimed they owned them.
Fearing the situation might spin
out of control, a prominent Congress politician rushed to the spot to soothe
tempers, albeit with a preconceived concern over the activities of the
"unruly jawans". Elsewhere at Habibpur, in the same district, villagers
launched a massive agitation against paving of the Indo-Bangla border road
as well as border fencing, on the pretext of losing many schools and houses
to the other side of the fence. Said Malda ADM PN Sarkar, "Such was the
agitation that we could not even put a shovel to dirt." Beyond the apparent
reason however, many felt the fencing could mean an instant loss of livelihood
for the locals.
Experts also point out that while
Bangladeshi NGOs cry themselves hoarse about women trafficking, they refuse
to link it to the problem of infiltration. According to reports, while
every third or fourth sex worker in Kolkata and Mumbai's brothels comes
from Bangladesh and Nepal, the kingpins stationed across the border, often
with political linkage, control their trafficking.
Though there is no graph as yet
to show that the infiltrators get themselves employed at the cost of Indian
labourers, many feel the Bangladeshis, particularly in Kolkata, Delhi,
Punjab and Mumbai, provide cheap labour, in comparison to their Indian
counterparts. Says Revti, the wife of a Kolkata businessman who has employed
three Bangladeshi women as domestic help, "Locals charge Rs 1,500 for 24
hours of service a month, while I have employed three women from Kalia
(in Bangladesh) for that amount. Besides, they will not pester you for
frequent leaves, not at least when the border is 'hot'."
Says Biswajit, a middle-rung executive
from Barasat, who has employed two part time domestics, "I do not see any
harm in employing them. After all they come cheap. Safety has to be relegated
to secondary place, particularly when you have to make do within a limited
income, with no provident fund and pension to fall back on."
Their likes are however perhaps
oblivious of an estimated 20 per cent increase in crime, mainly burglary
and robbery in the Kolkata suburbs during the last several months. The
last month alone has witnessed at least 10 dacoities within a span of as
many days in 24 Parganas, mostly committed by suspected Bangladeshis.
Incidentally, the Left Front government,
which has for decades been charged with encouraging the infiltration into
India, has now apparently become cautious in its approach. The reason,
feel experts, after observing the pattern of electioneering, is that a
bulk of Hindu Bangladeshis, who formed the the Left Front government's
vote bank, have suddenly switched sides with the new Hindutva slogan doing
the rounds. Beaten in Bangladesh, particularly after the coming to power
of the current dispensation there, the group has decided to identify itself
with the saffron forces. Muslim infiltrators though have remained faithful
to the Left forces.
Consequently, the Leftist perception
of infiltration seems to have undergone a major change, with the top Left
leaders not only voicing their concerns about illegal immigration but also
willing to cooperate with the Centre in identifying trespassers and plugging
the holes along the borders. The subaltern section of the CPIM has reportedly
been told to act cautiously on the issue of infiltration, while Left Front
chairman Biman Bose has come out openly in favour of "issuing national
identity cards along the border districts and the earliest fencing of the
borders."
