Author: Nazmul Ashraf
Publication: The Daily Star
Date: February 1, 2003
URL: http://www.dailystarnews.com/200302/01/n3020101.htm#BODY4
Introduction: New Delhi's claim
that 20 million illegal Bangladeshis live in India would be hard to prove,
says eminent Indian journalist Kuldip Nayar.
"I don't know how the Indian home
minister got that figure. But the fact that many of them speak Bengali
does not necessarily mean that they are from Bangladesh," he told The Daily
Star in an exclusive interview last week.
"It is very difficult to detect
illegal immigrants when they are on voters' list and have ration cards."
India should have introduced a strict
work permit scheme long ago to check unauthorised migration, he said. "You
can't identify illegal immigrants by assembling them out because they speak
Bengali."
Nayar has proposed a work permit
scheme to the Indian government. He suggests that the high commission in
Dhaka advertise vacancies in India, detailing personnel requirements and
nature of work.
Some people from Bangladesh go to
India for economic reasons -- to look for jobs, he pointed out.
The consultation committee on interior
ministry has accepted his proposal, he said. "I don't know of any further
development on this. New Delhi must follow it up. This is not a new experiment
and was tried in some other countries."
Nayar feels that New Delhi is giving
Dhaka wrong signals. "The distance between Dhaka and Delhi is increasing
and people-to-people contact declining because, I think, Indian government's
policy on visa has become difficult and restrictive.
"It should be liberalised to increase
people-to-people contact, which will help bridge the gap between the two
next-door neighbours and benefit the two peoples."
On the other hand, the Bangladesh
Nationalist Party-led government does not seem to have many fronts to open
to improve Dhaka's ties with Delhi, he said.
Nayar believes India and Bangladesh
"should have avoided rhetoric" in the recent debate over cross-border terrorism
"to maintain neighbourly ties".
The politicians of the two countries
used to know each other before but there is hardly any contact now, he
said.
The former member of Indian parliament
feels Dhaka should allow New Delhi to send a delegation to visit the sites
the latter claims have bases of anti-Indian terrorist camps. "The delegation
may have an aerial view of these sites."
"During my talks (last Wednesday)
with the foreign minister (M Morshed Khan), I suggested that Bangladesh
should offer India a chance to see for itself the reported anti-Indian
training camps in Bangladesh," he said.
The noted Indian political commentator
does not believe that Delhi's current attitude towards Dhaka has anything
to do with gas export. "That is not a popular perception in India. Gas
is confined to very few Indians who would appreciate this kind of thing."
He also differs with the view India
finds problems with neighbours while handling domestic issues such as insurgency.
However, he is very critical of
the Bharatiya Janata Party-led ruling coalition's role in "disfiguring
my religion and my country".
"Hinduism is a way of life, but
the BJP-led coalition is spreading a sense of intolerance in the name of
Hindutva, the antithesis of secularism.
"India fought and got independence
on the basis of pluralism and secularism. We got and have been able to
uphold a constitution in that line. But the BJP and its coalition partners
are attacking the very fundamentals of our constitution. Some people are
spreading anti-secular ethos. We don't want the two-nation theory.
"After partition in 1947, India
with 82 per cent of Hindus, could have declared itself as a Hindu state,
just as Pakistan declared itself as an Islamic republic. But the national
struggle, including leaders like Gandhi, Nehru, Maulana Azad and Abdul
Ghaffar Khan, had a free, democratic, and secular India as its goal."
Indian people in general are opposed
to communal ethos for they uphold the constitutional mandate of secularism,
he said. "The BJP does not enjoy popular support to its policy. Nor all
its allies believe in it but they are supporting the BJP only to be in
power. The BJP has only 180 seats in the 543-member Lok Sabha."
Nayar feels the Gujarat riot has
"put pluralism of the state at stake" and left the Muslims there feeling
"by and large insecure".
"What happened in Gujarat is very
shameful. It didn't happen in other states because people there are not
of the same mentality. We've Muslims more than those in Pakistan or in
Bangladesh and they are spread all over India. India in its 52 years of
independence never witnessed incidents like that in Gujarat and that over
the Babri mosque."
He hopes that people would defeat
the communal forces in the next general elections.
"We would like to see how the religion
card is used in the polls. Secularism and pluralism are India's tradition
and its people would definitely not accept the religion card.
"I feel majority of the people do
not support Hindutva or fundamentalism in India. It's not the people but
the politicians who are trying to spread this outrage. There could be challenges
to secularism. Some groups will try to use religion to win elections. They
may intimidate in limited areas."
The BJP lost elections in the Uttar
Pradesh and the Madhya Pradesh after the Babri mosque episode, Nayar pointed
out. "We'll see how the Gujrat card is used in elections to 8/9 states
to be held this year. I am sure the temper of India's secularism would
prevail.
"The Western countries, Pakistan
and others are equating India with the BJP-led coalition. Most Indians
are as much critical of the Hindu jingoism as people outside."
Bangladesh has better communal harmony
than any other country in the sub-continent, he said. "There is lot of
liberalism in Bangladesh, but it appears to be changing."
The former diplomat supports Indian
External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha's proposal that the SAARC should
be an economic forum of the region. "In that case, India would have to
liberalise its policy so that its small neighbours can sell goods to it."
The South Asian grouping has not
moved to where it could have due to persistent disputes between two influential
members -- India and Pakistan, he said. "We've not only wasted time but
also deprived the peoples of the region. Bringing Afghanistan and Myanmar
into its fold, the SAARC can be turned into a strong economic unit of South
Asia. Thus, we can have a South Asian identity."
Nayar is not so optimistic about
the 'Look East' foreign policy Dhaka has started to pursue.
"It won't work. Pakistan also tried
it once. It's only natural that cooperation among the regional countries
would work more for they share a common historic, geographical and political
background.
"India should look into Bangladesh's
legitimate grievances. It should be sensitive to the causes of its neighbours
unilaterally. Development of its neighbours would ultimately benefit India."
The noted Indian columnist finds
the United States list of terror-risk countries deplorable. "I denounce
the US listing countries as terror-prone. It has no business to make any
such list. The US believes that al-Qaeda network exists in Muslim countries
and Bangladesh has been listed on that consideration."
However, he differs with the notion
that India's allegation of terrorism against Bangladesh has something to
do with the US action.
Nayar has recently visited Pakistan
but "didn't find any evidence of their attitude towards India changing."