From: as@cs.brown.edu (Apratim Sarkar)
Subject: Re: Politics of Infiltration: Stop Lebanonisation of Eastern India
Organization: Brown Computer Science Dept.
Date: Thu, 9 Apr 1992 05:43:21 GMT

An extremely relevant and well-written article!! 

The reference of the border town of Bangaon came up in the article. This is where
my grandfather used to live, when I was young (1978-79) I used to travel to this
place quite often. I remember people taking trains to Calcutta and talking quite
freely about crossing the border illegally and how they do it *everyday* - they
cross the border from Bangladesh and come to work at Calcutta. Firstly, this
shows the lack of immigration checkings at the Bangaon border (but then the
entire border is like a sieve) and secondly and more importantly, how these
people from Bangladesh are taking away the jobs from the local people in Calcutta
and neighbourhood. 

Back in Calcutta, working with a social service organisation in the "basti"s of
Calcutta, I found that a majority of the people who repair umbrellas in Calcutta
(in the rainy season you can see many new faces mending umbrellas in newly grown
streetside shops) come from Bangladesh in the rainy season and go back when the
lucrative season is over. The section of the illegal immigrants that I came
across specialised in this, I am sure that other such examples can be found
in other fields of work. This is another example of the local people losing jobs
to foreigners staying illelaglly in the country. Considering the economic
situation in West Bengal, we can hardly afford to neglect this!!

Again, this has a question of law and security assosciated with it. Particularly
in the Bangaon region, there exists complete "law of the gun" - and the bandits -
some Indians, some Bangladeshis - commit crime and murder on one side of the
border and migrate to the other side and the police are helpless. It is the
responsibilty of the Border Security Force to handle this problem - but they
are always complaining of (may be it *is* true - but that also is not something
we should be very happy and content about) lack of resources and manpower.
Particularly in the Sundarban border region and on the other side in the
Bangladesh-Assam boder there are miles and miles of marshlands and the BSF openly
say that they are helpless in such contours.

There is another subtle point to note - the Hindus form a minority of the
migrating population. To me, at least, this seems to be a covert attempt at
transforming West Bengal into a Muslim-majority state and attempting another
partition. Looks like BJP propaganda, but from personal experiences (please
believe me - this is for real) and discussions with the immigrants in Calcutta as
well as in the border areas - THIS IS A VERY PREVELANT THOUGHT IN THE MINDS OF
THE PEOPLE WHO HAVE IMMIGRATED AND THEY OPENLY TOLD ME THAT THIS WAS WHAT THEY
WERE PROMISED WHEN THE TOUTS BROUGHT THEM FROM BANGLADESH. TO ME - THIS IS
ALARMING!!!

Regarding the legalisation of the status of the immigrants - getting ration cards
in the villages and towns illegally with the help of the local Panchayets is no
big deal in West Bengal these days. The same goes for geting your name in the
voting list, anyway in Bengal rigging votes and having fictitious persons in the
voting list has become a "legal" part of the franchise under the Left Front Govt.
But they are not the only one to blame - for the main opposition party - the
Congress(I) also promotes the same process. And the BJP are using this
immigration business as a propaganda to promote communal feelings in West Bengal,
which has been an epitome of a secular state till now. It seems to me that none of
the political parties are concerned about the long term problems that their
actions may lead to and they are just out to please the respective vote banks.

I will finish with another personal experience. Just before I was coming to USA I
was having some problems with my passport. I was waiting in the passport office
for the problem to be cleared up. There I met this guy who was also waiting for
his passport to be cleared. When he came to know that I was having problems with
the passport, he enquired whether I had taken "internal help". When I answered in
the negative, he told me, "That's the error you have made. See, I am a
Bangladeshi and am going to get a Indian passport without any hassles, I have
recommendations." He slyly added, "You know, it is handy to have an Indian
passport." I never believed that he was serious, but now that I read that a LF
minister have recommended 239(?) immigrants for passports, I am doubtful about my
initial belief.

Apra.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Apratim Sarkar 	    	      	   	     	       fone  (401)-863-7667 (off)    
Brown University, Box 1910     	   	     	       	     (401)-272-4446 (home)
Department of Computer Science	   	     	       fax   (401)-863-7657 	      
Providence, RI 02912-1910     	   	     	       email as@cs.brown.edu
USA.

     	       	  "Swadharme Nidhano Shreya, Parodharma Bhayabaha" 
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: soc.culture.indian