Hordes from Bangladesh

A well-known story retold

Hordes from Bangladesh:

Saradindu Mukherji Professor of History, University of Delhi

The expose on the close relationship of Mr Shahid Chowdhury, the Communist Minister in Tripura, and his Bangladeshi wife with various terrorist organisations, including those based in Bangladesh, leading to his dismissal does not shock any more. Nor does the report of the Parliamentary Standing Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs on the nature and ramifications of the problem created by illegal infiltration from Bangladesh say anything new.

I recall the sense of amazement and disbelief many years back in a major conference at Oxford when an international gathering of scholars learnt that the authorities in India have not only actively encouraged illegal migration from Bangladesh but also provided them with ration cards, besides helping them buy properties and registering themselves as voters. Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, former President of India, during his term as a Minister in Assam, had reportedly played a pioneering role in getting thousands of Muslims from erstwhile East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) to settle in Assam. The barrister who represented Babri Masjid Action Committee and former Chief Minster of West Bengal, Mr Siddhartha Shankar Ray, had reportedly helped thousands of Bihari Muslims from Bangladesh, who had collaborated with the Pakistanis in the 1971 war for Bangladeshi liberation, settle in West Bengal. So, did Ghani Khan Chowdhury in Malda, and many others.

As against them, Mr TV Rajeswar, as Governor of West Bengal (currently, the Governor of Uttar Pradesh) and Gen SK Sinha, as Governor of Assam (now the Governor of Jammu & Kashmir) have exposed the dangers of illegal infiltration from Bangladesh. Despite many such reports, vigorous debates in our legislatures and news reports in the media, nothing has been done. One may recall the fate of a senior IPS officer in Assam who was suspended by Anwara Taimur, the then Chief Minister, for exposing this demographic aggression by Bangladesh.

However, we must deal sympathetically with bona fide refugees like Hindus, Buddhists and other kafirs -- the victims of the most sustained religious cleansing in Bangladesh. They were thrown to the wolves in the erstwhile East Bengal after 1946. As for Muslims, we have to remember that India was divided on the basis of religion and Muslims got their desired homeland. While Pakistan has almost got rid of polytheists and Bangladesh is left with just eight per cent non-Muslims, the Muslim population continues to rise alarmingly in India. Hence, Muslim migrants from Bangladesh -- far from being seen as refugees -- need to be deported at the earliest. We cannot permit another partition, no matter what our jihad-friendly buddhijibis and politicians say.

Mr Krishnan Srinivasan, India's former envoy to Bangladesh, writes in his book, The Jamdani Revolution, about his plan for a "team of international correspondents taken to the places of self-evident migration along the West Bengal borders" being accepted by Indian officials, but rejected by then West Bengal's Chief Minister Jyoti Basu on the specious plea that it would cause "communal disharmony". Actually, that would have exposed the complicity of Mr Basu's Government in helping illegal infiltrators to settle in West Bengal.

Mr Bibhuti Bhushan Nandy, a former IPS officer, has also noted Mr Basu's brazen denial when he once confronted him about Bangladeshi infiltration. Pressed further, Mr Basu just kept mum.

Our spineless and terrorist-friendly politicians go out of their way to encourage others to settle down -- many of whom have no civilisational love for India and who will one day become the nucleus of a separatist movement. Many of them are already involved in such activities across the country.

Suggestions for grant of work permit to these infiltrators must be rejected. The alleged difficulties to distinguish between people from the other side of Padma are spurious. All major regions of Bengal are identifiable by their distinct accent and dialect, and it is not difficult for the knowledgeable to find out someone's place of origin after separating Hindus, Buddhists and the occasional Taslima Nasreens. Deportation is not really a Herculean task. The Government can do it within 72 hours if it really wants.

Otherwise, our "sleeper-cells" active even during Bakhtiyar Khilji's attack on Bihar and Bengal, and very much active even after centuries, will join hands with these infiltrators to carry out their sacred mission of Islamisation.

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