Author: Editorial
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: February 4, 2003
Dhaka's allegation, that India is
pushing Bengali-speaking Indian Muslims into Bangladesh in the name of
expelling infiltrators from the latter, would make a horse laugh. This
country has a powerful and independent media which is in awe of no Government,
and a vibrant and secular democratic polity in which the Opposition plays
a stridently assertive role.
Any attempt to herd Bengali-speaking
Indian Muslims into large groups for pushing them across the India-Bangladesh
border, would have raised strong protests within the country. Instead of
indulging in specious arguments, Bangladesh should, therefore, seriously
try to prevent its nationals from infiltrating into India, or failing that,
not to make an issue of the expulsions. It should also recognise that infiltration,
which has continued to increase steadily ever since the partition of the
subcontinent in 1947, and which has been assuming grave proportions over
the years, has acquired a new seriousness following the emergence of Bangladesh
as one of the two most important hubs of fundamentalist Islamist terrorism
in South and Southeast Asia thanks to the policies of Prime Minister Khaleda
Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party and its partner in Government, the fundamentalist
Islamist and pro-Pakistan Jamaat-e-Islami. This has given a new boost to
the activities of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Directorate
in Bangladesh where it has been operating-barring the Awami League's tenure
in power from 1996 to 2001-with complete freedom ever since the assassination
of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975. Besides, Begum Khaleda's return to power
in October 2001 has led to a sharp increase in Bangladesh's assistance
to India's Northeastern rebels whom she had described, during her tenure
as the Leader of the Opposition from 1996 to 2001, as freedom fighters
whom Bangladesh ought to support. As shown by India in a comprehensive
note to Dhaka, the number of training camps for them, run by the ISI in
collaboration with Bangladesh's intelligence agencies, has gone up steeply.
Besides, ISI agents are now coming across the porous India-Bangladesh border
along with other infiltrators to perpetrate terrorist outrages in this
country.
Infiltration is, therefore, no longer
just a phenomenon that causes ethnic and cultural tensions and economic
imbalance in parts of North and Northeast India-though that itself is a
serious matter-it is a threat to the country's security as well. Tough
measures, including the interception and expulsion of infiltrators, are
therefore imperative. India-Bangladesh relations are bound to deteriorate
further if Begum Khaleda's Government fails to recognise this and persists
in its anti-India and pro-Pakistan orientation. Indeed, Bangladesh needs
to do some serious introspection. At stake are not only its relations with
India but also its position in the world. Its attempt to project itself
as a moderate Islamic country would continue to lack credibility if it
persists in hosting Al Qaeda escapees from Afghanistan and allowing domestic
fundamentalist Islamist outfits to operate freely while ruthlessly persecuting
liberal and secular intellectuals. It is not just India that is uneasy.
The United States's decision to include Bangladesh among the list of countries
whose citizens above a certain age have to register with its immigration
and naturalisation services, is a significant pointer.
