Author: T V R Shenoy
Publication: The Indian Express
Date: February 20, 2003
URL: http://www.indianexpress.com/full_story.php?content_id=18723
Introduction: For decades, politicians
cashed in on situation, made migrants votebank
In an ideal world our guardians
of law and order would follow the ''Chaminda Vaas Manual on Dealing with
Bangladeshi Pretenders'', namely: Knock 'em over, and send them back! Alas,
for decades it seems they have been anticipating the ''Captain Clueless
Rulebook' (scripted by the erstwhile ''Prince of Kolkata''), to wit: Grab
the endorsements, and go to sleep...
With the obligatory cricket metaphor
out of the way, let us go straight to the thesis of this column: Bangladesh
is no friend to India. Nor, though it has grabbed the headlines, are the
problems confined to illegal migration. But let us start by addressing
this issue. There are as many as 20 million Bangladeshis scattered across
India. Some are genuine refugees, men and women fleeing persecution, but
many are just looking to make a quick buck at Indians' expense. Most worrying,
an increasing number are criminals allied to terrorists.
Obviously, the situation did not
arise overnight. But for decades on end it was ignored by the major political
parties in West Bengal and the Northeast, the Congress (I) and the CPI(M).
Illegal migrants were treated as a votebank. (I wasn't joking when I spoke
of ''endorsements''.) It was a beautiful arrangement; Bangladeshis could
not be citizens, but they could become voters. And the threat of exposure
ensured that these migrants would do as they were told. It is only now
that Congressmen and Marxists alike have woken up to the dangers inherent
in the situation.
Is it too late? According to one
account, as many as 55 lakh ration-cards have been issued to Bangladeshis
in West Bengal. And why do you think the demographic pattern of state after
state in the Northeast has changed so rapidly?
Bangladesh calmly refuses to accept
that any of her citizens have crossed into India illegally, leave alone
that millions of them have done so. This is partly an attempt to save face;
which nation will admit that it is such a basketcase that its citizens
must flee to beg for their bread elsewhere? But it is also partly because
Bangladesh, at the highest echelons of its society, is profoundly inimical
to India.
Think about it for a minute. The
politicians, generals and bureaucrats who control Bangladesh today are
all products of the period when it was ruled from Islamabad. They have
all the anti-India prejudices that were - still are - fashionable in Pakistan.
To cite but one example, two ministers from the Jamaat- e-Islami are men
who supported Yahya Khan, the butcher who posed as a general, during the
massacres of 1971. And the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party-led coalition
itself came to power on an avowedly anti-Indian plank. (Two members of
the group, by the way, openly proclaimed their admiration for the Taliban.)
Anyone who expects anything but obfuscation and obstruction from the powers-that-be
in Dacca is living in cloud-cuckoo-land!
Don't think for a moment that this
lack of cooperation is confined only to the issue of illegal migrants.
It is an open secret in Tripura that terrorists operating in that state
are sure to find sanctuary in Bangladesh, as will, say, kidnappers and
smugglers. But how do you get the Foreign Minister of Bangladesh to admit
that his country is a haven for crooks?
Equally important, how do you get
the average Indian to wake up to the menace? While there is general agreement
that Pakistan is a threat, there is still a woolyheaded view of Bangladesh
as a nation that India must look after, of it being a nation of victims
who must be helped. The illusions forged in 1971 evidently die hard!
Yes, some migrants are genuine refugees.
Fifty-five years ago, 25 per cent of the population of East Pakistan was
Hindu, today the percentage has fallen to less than half that figure. The
Bangladesh Nationalist Party considers these 8.2 million voters to be partisans
of the rival Awami League. In the last elections, Hindus became a favourite
target, in a concerted attempt to prevent them from voting. The situation
became worse after Begum Khaleda Zia assumed power. Shops owned by Hindus
are burnt, Hindu women are molested, and Hindus in general are implicitly
told that they are no longer welcome in the country that India liberated
in 1971.
(It is saddening to note that none
of this finds its way into the Indian media. The last time that anyone
noted the fact that Hindus were being persecuted in Bangladesh was when
Taslima Nasreen wrote Lajja!)
Secularists will be comforted, however,
to know that it is not just Hindus who are being targeted by the fundamentalists
in Bangladesh, so are liberal Muslims. Shamim Osman was once a member of
the Bangladesh Parliament. Today, this former Awami League MP from Narayanganj
is living as a refugee in Kolkata, and wants to apply for asylum. That
should tell you something about the state of affairs in Bangladesh.
Sheikh Hasina, the former Prime
Minister, makes no secret of her worries on this issue. She has repeatedly
appealed to the Hindus not to flee Bangladesh, and has pledged her party's
determination to fight all attempts to Talibanise her country. But, however
admirable her intentions, she is not in power and Begum Zia is.
In 1848, Tsar Nicholas I helped
the tottering Habsburg empire by sending troops to put down a Hungarian
uprising. ''Some day,'' the Austrian minister Schwarzenberg commented,
''we shall amaze the world by the depth of our ingratitude.'' Remember
that on the next anniversary of the 1971 War.
