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Basu asks Hasina to curb infiltration

Arup Chanda in Calcutta

For the first time, West Bengal's Marxist Chief Minister Jyoti Basu took up an issue with Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed that is usually the task of the central government and has often soured relations between New Delhi and Dhaka in the past.

The issue: infiltration from Bangladesh.

A decade ago, when the Bharatiya Janata Party had raised the issue, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) had described infiltration as an "international phenomenon" and refused to give it much credence.

The BJP has always maintained that there are more than 10 million Bangladeshis in West Bengal alone and accused the Marxists of not taking action as they "are part of the CPI-M's vote bank". On its part, the West Bengal government has always soft-pedalled the issue and never accepted the figure touted by the BJP.

But realising that infiltration is causing several problems in the state, the Marxists have finally accepted the BJP's claim of massive infiltration and taken it up on behalf of the BJP-led government at the Centre.

On Thursday evening, at a meeting with Sheikh Hasina, Basu raised the issue at the risk of striking a discordant note in her goodwill visit to the state, pointing out that the infiltrators are a strain on West Bengal's economy.

Sheikh Hasina, of course, did not want to give the issue much importance and demanded proof for Basu's statement.

Basu, however, is not one to give up easily. In his usual manner, the chief minister reiterated that infiltration is taking place and illegal settlers from across the border are "a major headache for many Indian cities". He also mentioned that West Bengal is bearing the brunt of the infiltration and the state's economy is being adversely affected.

He said the infiltrators would be pushed back after discussions with Dhaka.

Basu said, "A large number of people belonging to both communities, without valid papers, are coming in. While many of them settle in and around Calcutta, others go to Delhi and Bombay".

Realising the implications of Basu's observations, Sheikh Hasina denied there was even one Bangladeshi citizen residing illegally in India and demanded a list, if there are any, from the Indian government.

"There are no Bangladeshi infiltrators in India. Why should a Bangladeshi national cross over and relocate in a foreign country?" she asserted at the meeting.

But Basu was firm and said India and Bangladesh need to work jointly to identify Bangladeshi infiltrators and arrange for their deportation.

He said, "Several Bangladeshi settlers are here. I had informed the state assembly how we had pushed back 20,000 infiltrators in the past few years. I know a large number of Bangladeshi nationals cross over to the districts of Murshidabad and Malda every day in search of work and go back. They come for economic reasons, so we do not object."

Though Basu seems to have agreed with the BJP-Shiv Sena government in Maharashtra that Bangladeshi infiltrators need to be deported, he does not approve of the manner in which attempts were made to deport some of them from Bombay.

"We first identify them before pushing them back across the border following certain rules and regulations," he said.

Commenting on the Maharashtra government's move to deport illegal settlers without the West Bengal government's knowledge, he said it had created problems.

"We immediately intervened to sort out things. Those who possessed bona fide papers were allowed to stay, while the others were sent back to Bangladesh," he said.

Basu did not feel that fencing the border to prevent infiltration would affect bilateral relations. "What is the harm in putting up fences when we are two separate countries? We have to make efforts to solve the problem," he asserted.

West Bengal has a 2,200km border with Bangladesh, of which 600km are riverine and 500km have already been fenced.

That West Bengal is no longer willing to suffer the burden of infiltration was also made clear by Home Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya at another meeting with India's high commissioner in Dhaka, Deb Mukherjee. They discussed how to handle the issue at the diplomatic level.

Infiltration has been a bone of contention between India and Bangladesh for a long time. Successive governments in Dhaka have denied the presence of Bangladeshi nationals in India. Sheikh Hasina took the same line.

But with Basu raking up the issue, it has assumed greater significance. It is now to be seen how the Bangladesh government reacts to his observation after Sheikh Hasina returns to Dhaka on Friday night.

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