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India giving wrong signals: Kuldip Nayar

India giving wrong signals: Kuldip Nayar

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."
 


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