Nearly 20% of the 2,216.7 km long border in West Bengal with Bangladesh could not be fenced due to non-cooperation of the state administration.
Bangladesh border with West Bengal is a case study on how porous an international border can be. Not only is this porous geographically speaking but also due to regular border trade, legal and illegal, among the people of both countries. The extent of the local participation in maintaining such open border could be seen when even the Border Guards of Bangladesh (BGB) joined its local population in objecting to India’s BSF (Border Security Force) erecting fences along the border. Evidently for local people on both sides, the so-called ruling party cadres of both West Bengal and Bangladesh who thrive on “border trade” and also law enforcement officials in both countries, the porous border is a source of additional income, therefore necessary.
People to people exchange between India and Bangladesh received a boost since 1971 with the liberation of Bangladesh from Pakistan. The existence of several enclaves in India and Bangladesh—chhitmahals—helped the perpetuation of border trade. Little did the authorities in New Delhi think of the threats arising out of such illegal movements across the border. In any case, since Independence, West Bengal was a step child of the Central government ignoring rehabilitation of the huge number of Hindu refugees who were exposed to threats from a newly created hostile Pakistan. The myopia was best demonstrated in the Nehru-Liaquat pact of 1950, which innocently stated that the safety of the minorities in India and Pakistan would be responsibility of the respective governments. Nehru and his cabinet, barring Syamaprasad, turned deaf and dumb in studying the plight of Bengali Hindus. Situation was so bad that even West Bengal Chief Minister, Dr Bidhan Chandra Ray had to send a few Dakota planes to evacuate Bengali Hindus from Dacca. In other words, New Delhi seemed satisfied as long as the Bengalis remained a problem of West Bengal alone.
Only once was such aloofness discarded when Prime Minister Indira Gandhi helped in liberating Bangladesh from Pakistan. But soon this gave rise to a porous border with regular exchanges between the two Bengali speaking parts West Bengal and Bangladesh. The euphoria arising out of this ushered in a period of interactions between the two countries. Even West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu went to see his ancestral house, around 10 km away from Dacca creating lot of media attention. But only three years after this, in 1999, when then Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited Kolkata, Jyoti Basu expressed his displeasure on illegal Bangladeshis setting in West Bengal. Apparently he had said that a large number of people from across the border walk in daily into the districts of Malda and Murshidabad and go back after earning their livelihood and this he found acceptable but these people, both Hindus and Muslims, settling down was causing problem for the state’s economy.
A critical point should be noted here. The porous border and some sort of daily exchange among people found acceptance with the state administration. That such exchanges involved smuggling across the border did not cause any alarm. Such tacit acceptance led to flourishing border “trade”, largely illegal, in cows, drugs, and gold and food items like sugar, onions, circulating fake Indian currency and even human trafficking. Cattle smuggling was estimated at US$ 500 million per annum (Rs 4,000 crore). The lucrative trade continues unabated even now, and saw even BSF commandant joining in the illegal activity.
Money generated through such illegal activities across West Bengal border created funds for ruling political powers and served terrorism. Though UN data had placed Bangladesh ahead of India in Human Development Index, daily influx of people from the country to work in India went on unchecked. Once in West Bengal they could obtain necessary documents and even become political leaders. There are many such examples. A certain Alo Rani Sarkar contested state assembly polls with a Trinamool ticket. She was ruled as Bangladeshi by the Calcutta High Court. A very recent case is of Lovely Khatun, the head of Rashidabad gram panchayat in West Bengal. It is alleged that she is a Bangladeshi national, who illegally entered India, joined the Trinamool Congress (TMC) and won panchayat election. Clearly, the West Bengal’s ruling party has vested interest in sponsoring illegal migrants into India.
This was evident when a fake passport racket was unearthed even by the Kolkata police, which normally stays aloof at such crimes. Blames were quickly passed on to the Central government for issuing passports, stating unabashedly that the police verification process is merely routine. Even Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleged that it is the BSF which allow illegals to come to India from Bangladesh, local police had no role in it. She forgot to say that it is her administration which failed to hand over land for setting up BSF outposts in at least 72 locations. Even in the Supreme Court, India’s Solicitor General Tushar Mehta had said that nearly 20% of the 2,216.7 km long border in West Bengal with Bangladesh could not be fenced due to non-cooperation of the state administration.
Of late the Centre has asked the BSF to ignore opposition of local administration and go ahead with fencing to secure the border. BSF was told to forward names of state officials working against such critical national safety issues so as to take necessary actions against them. Such firm step of the BSF turned BGB and Bangladeshi nationals desperate to stop BSF from erecting fences at the border in West Bengal’s Malda district. The aggression from Bangladesh and support to BSF by Indian residents illustrate which side gains most by infiltrating into India. Without support from the state’s local political power, Bangladeshi infiltration could have been stopped long ago.
The tacit and often enough active support from TMC to keep the Bangladesh border porous also illustrates the fault in the Indian Constitution. How can a state administration that too its Chief Minister, encourage illegal border trade, migration and effectively sponsor anti-national elements to infiltrate? In any civilised national Constitution such political elements would be banned, sadly not in India. Time the Apex Court and the Parliament wake up to the danger.
* Sugato Hazra is founder of Poliminds Consult, a content agency for aspiring and practising politicians.