Poll politics cloud illegal migration

KOLKATA: Reports of a Bangladeshi couple stranded with three children at the no-man’s land late in February were dismissed casually by the media. This was neither new nor as dramatic as the 213 Bangladeshi snakecharmers who had found themselves similarly sandwiched between a section of belligerent BSF jawans on one side and equally hostile jawans of Bangladesh Rifles.But the media did highlight the couple’s desperate plea for ‘mercy killing’ after being forced to live in the open for nearly a week, with no access to either food or water.
While both the BSF and the BDR highlighted the case as the handiwork of the other, the couple disappeared into the morning mist , after a week-long standoff in North Dinajpur, as mysteriously as the snake charmers had melted away from Coochbehar district’s Satgachi border earlier in the month. With the war of words hotting up and with both the BSF and the BDR claiming to have outsmarted the other, the real issue has got buried.
Poor Bangladeshis travelling to India in search of livelihood, influx of persecuted minorities from Bangladesh and movement of both Indian and Bangladeshi smugglers have all been painted with the same brush. They are all described as ‘infiltrators’, armed men coming surreptitiously for subversion. Respective national interest has cast a shadow on human rights, comments Ratneswar Bhattacharjee, a scholar on Bangladesh affairs. “All cry for human rights have stopped at the no man’s land.�
Observers, however, have found a method in the madness. Elections in both countries, they feel, are responsible for raising the pitch. Till recently, claim these observers, Bangladesh and BDR rarely objected to Bangladeshis being sent back by India. But the Khaleda Zia-Jamat government decided to resist the push backs with an eye on the upazilla polls in Bangladesh, claims a BSF official. Recently held Assembly election in Tripura and upcoming panchayat elections in West Bengal, slated for May this year, might similarly have prompted West Bengal chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee to tacitly toe the line of the NDA government at the Centre.
Although the state BJP ideologue Sabyasachi Bagchi accepts that the national growth rate of Indian Muslims from 9.9 per cent in 1951 to 12 per cent in 2001 is ‘normal’, he vents his fear of millions of Bangladeshis swamping the Hindus and pave the way for a greater Bangladesh. Uncharacteristically, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee has maintained a studied silence on the issue.
His proximity to the deputy prime minister and BJP hardliner, Lal Krishna Advani, embarrasses his colleagues in the Left Front. The frequency with which BJP leaders have ben quoting Bhattacharjee on the ‘minority issue’ has also made squirm. Bangladeshi diplomats, however, recall that Bhattacharjee had expressed worries the Tripura poll as CPM’s were being killed by tribal insurgents, and also about the separatist ‘Kamtapuris’ in North Bengal when the Bangladesh’s foreign minister called on him month.
•Bangladeshis travelling to India in search of livelihood, influx of minorities from Bangladesh and movement of Indian and Bangladeshi smugglers have all been painted infiltrators – armed men coming for subversion.
•BJP accepts the national growth rate of Muslims is ‘normal’, but it vents fear millions of Bangladeshis swamping the Hindus and pave the way for a greater Bangladesh.