- ‘Bangladesh refugees are infiltrators, economic termites’
Before embarking on a three-day visit to India at the beginning of this month, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Hasina Wajid ordered removal, at the government’s expense, of India-East –Pakistan border pillars, bearing engraved the name of Pakistan. After Partition, more than 8000 pillars were installed in the bordering areas including Satkhira, Jashore, Chuadanga, and Kushtia. Earlier, Bangladesh prime minister had presented a portrait of surrendering Pakistan troops in 1971 to visiting Indian PM Narendra Modi. Add to it execution of elderly pro-Pakistan politicos. These puerile gestures were aimed at pleasing the Indian PM. Hasina’s provocative steps violate spirit of Simla Accord as also the Tripartite Agreement between the three.
However, it is to be seen how Bangladesh will cope with the burden of 19,06,657 Bangladeshis about to be flushed back into Bangladesh. India’s home minister called them ‘termites’ in the Indian economy. Already, Bangladesh is groaning under burden of a million Rohingya refugees. Then there are the thorny water issues, Teesta River and Bay of Bengal Continental Shelf. The West Bengal chief minister had declared not to part with “even a drop of the Teesta river water” as it would harm the interest of West Bengal.
Incendiary anti-Bengali statements: Telangana BJP MLA T Raja Singh Lodh demanded ‘Illegal Bangladeshi settlers and Rohingya should be shot ‘if they do not return to their countries like gentlemen’. YS Chowdary of the Telugu Desam Party said illegal immigrants from Bangladesh had settled in Assam as part of a “conspiracy to destroy India”. It is the responsibility of the government to send them back to Bangladesh, he said.
Transition from ‘Bangladesh zindabad’ to ‘drive out Bengalis’: India’s insincerity to Bangladesh stands unmasked. According to its National Register of Citizenship, India now dubs Bengali refugees or settlers after 1951 ‘infiltrators’. The register establishes genealogical family trees going back till 1951. The forbears of some Assamese Muslims go back 500 to 700 years, but they have no document to prove their nationality. India is all set to drive ‘infiltrators’ out.
Other States: The demand for expelling all Bangladeshis from Indian states is gaining momentum. Some critics think the onslaught against Bangladeshi Muslims in India is part of Hindutva frenzy to harass Muslim community. Just three months after the final draft of the NRC for Assam was released, India’s Supreme Court tagged a petition seeking a similar process for Tripura.
Pakistan should explore the opportunity to woo a recalcitrant Bangladesh in view of emerging shift in India-Bangladesh relations. Bangladesh strides in economic growth coupled with population control are laudable
India’s perfidious attitude in 1971: A bitter lesson of history is that India’s initial objective was not to convert East Pakistan into Bangladesh. India aimed at nothing higher than capturing sizable chunk of territory to establish a Bangladesh government from Calcutta and transfer the bulk of her refugee burden to the liberated area, but a distraught ‘Tiger’ Niazi signed a surrender document, instead of a ceasefire agreement. After the fall of Dacca, the victorious Indians were least bothered about protecting innocent civilians. The Indians were busy removing the plunder of their victory to India. Large convoys of trains and trucks moved military hardware, foodstuffs, industrial produce and household goods including refrigerators, carpets and television set. The khaki of the Pakistani soldiers had been replaced by the green uniform of the Indian army. The Bengalis …were flabbergasted at a change.
ISI linked to Bengalis in Assam: Both Houses of Indian parliament have witnessed a rumpus on the question of pushing back 4.7 million Bengali Muslims back to Bangladesh. But, the Bangladesh government has clarified that it won’t take back the returnees as they are ‘Indian nationals’. The fate of Bengali Muslims, settled in Assam since times immemorial, thus hangs in the balance. Many politicians, including former RAW officers, have claimed it was the ISI’s conspiracy to push Bangladeshi Muslims into various Indian states as moles. A retired RAW officer (Sriprakash Jaiswal), in his public statement made startling revelations. He claimed “There were around 12 million such people living in 17 states and union territories as on December 31 2001.” He added, “Assam accounted for 5 million and West Bengal 5.7 million Bangladeshi immigrants living illegally.”
Aside from Jaswal’s recent statement, the BJP government had informed the Rajya Sabha in 2006 that ‘as per the available information there are 20 million such persons living illegally in India’. The BJP leaders quote from Sheikh Mujibur Rehman’s book to say that Mujib, as an East Pakistani national, wanted to annex Assam into East Pakistan (Bangladesh). Mujeeb in his book, Eastern Pakistan: Its Population and Economics, wrote, “Because Eastern Pakistan must have sufficient land for its expansion and because Assam has abundant forests and mineral resources, coal, petroleum etc., Eastern Pakistan must include Assam to be financially and economically strong”.
While disenfranchising Bangladeshis, India would grant ‘citizenship to persecuted Hindus, Jains, Sikhs, Parsis, Christians and Buddhists from Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh who came to India’. The citizenship criterion violates Article 14 of the Indian Constitution. The article guarantees ‘equality before the law and prohibits discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth’.
Yet the NRC process in Assam has overwhelming support across most political parties. There is no consensus as to how the deportation process should proceed. Such a bureaucratic exercise has deep humanitarian implications. It would create new fault lines, especially in a state like Tripura where there is no such unanimity of views on the NRC process. It will play havoc with reconciliation between Bengali-speaking and tribal people.
Bangladesh is tight-rope balancing between China and India. Many cabinet ministers think that Bangladesh’s future lies with stronger rapport with China. During her visit to China, Sh Hasina discussed a broad spectrum of issues and signed several memoranda of understanding. They covered the power sector, riverine matters including Brahmaputra river, commercial loans and formation of various working groups. Bangladesh has accepted the Belt and Road Initiative.
Pakistan should explore the opportunity to woo a recalcitrant Bangladesh in view of emerging shift in India-Bangladesh relations. Bangladesh strides in economic growth coupled with population control are laudable. At present, Bangladesh’s income per capita exceeds Pakistan’s. Several factors contributed to Bangladesh’s economic progress– absence of terrorism or insurgency, consistent industrialisation policies for industrialists and investors alike, availability of a flexible, educated, skilled, low-priced workforce, a low defence budget, better in-built accountability measures, and so forth.