Bangladeshi infiltrators pose a big threat to Indian Economy as well as the National Security
It is rightly said that economics is everywhere; one has to look for it minutely. Rag pickers, construction site workers, housemaids, rickshaw pullers, restaurant waiters, weavers, fruit vendors, these are often of low interest areas for the economic discussion. In contrast, what matters more is stock index performance bonds on day to day basis, but hidden facts tell a different and alarming story. The above mentioned areas relate to unorganised sector which constitutes nearly 86 per cent of workforce of India. Bangladeshi infiltrators have crossed the borders illegally and are prepared to challenge migrants of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and other states.
Silent Economic Fight: A Small Observation
Atal Behari Vajpayee’s statement in the Parliament regarding low income of rickshaw pullers of Delhi because of Bangladeshi infiltrators says a lot. Nobody notices the fight between Indian and Bangladeshi rag pickers underneath the flyovers of Delhi or in ghettoised colonies. For general people it’s something of less interest but for them it’s an economic fight for survival. Figures say that the Bangladeshi infiltrators are higher in number in north and east Delhi. Informal sector constitutes 50 per cent of GDP, highly contributed by these 350 million workers. Don’t they have any economic right?
Everywhere, be it plantation workers in Assam, Bengal and rag pickers in urban areas or maids in urban colonies, there is a never ending Indian-Bangladeshi economic fight. It’s not only the individual war for livelihood but also reduction in per capita gain from state sponsored welfare schemes. It’s quite ironic that there was a time when Hindus fled from Bangladesh to India to avoid religious persecution and at the same time Muslims fled due to economic degradation, and now there are around 2 million Bangladeshi rag pickers in Delhi in spite of the fact that in 1998 around 30 lakh Bangladeshis were deported.
The most dominant factor behind the migration can be divided among the “push” and “pull” factor present between the two economies. “Push” factor being the petty economic conditions in an economy whose outcome is lack of means of livelihood and that ultimately push or compel people to leave their native lands in hunt for opportunities for advancement and better livelihood. The “Pull” factor, on the other hand, is the presence of higher employment opportunities, wages, facilities and comforts of modern life in another economy that pull the infiltrators towards them. Apart from better economic opportunities in India other multiple factors like sympathetic Bengal Government, cultural linkages, political and government support, vote bank politics which grants them citizenship, etc have paved the way for Bangladeshi infiltrators to India.
Theft of Tax Payers’ Money: How and Why?
Migration in jobs in unorganised sector has also caused high pressure on Infrastructure. It also puts pressures on economic resources as well as social welfare schemes. In short, the low wage labour productivity has deprived the local labour of such avenues of employment. It is believed that a Bangladeshi unorganised workers saves an average of Rs 30 per day and they all together sends around 1500 crore every year to family members residing in Bangladesh.
Indian resources are also being used for building hundreds of unauthorised mosques and madrasas inside the country as well as at Indo-Bangladesh borders. These illegal migrants are also involved in all kinds of illegal activites that can take place in the country from stealing to murders to terrorism. India’s national security is haunted by the idea of bigger Bangladesh. In a recent report, 71 Bangladeshi nationals were arrested in Kerala and some in Jharkhand too for carrying forged documents that identified them as Indians. A Bangladeshi national arrested by the Assam police revealed that ISI had plans to turn the North-East into a conflicted region. The illegal migrants are largely involved in drug trafficking, proliferating guns and fake currencies.
Economic Assistance in Wrong Hands
The average number of Bangladeshi residents in India is said to be around 5 crore. In Delhi it’s easy to find them in slums of Seelampur, Taimoor Nagar, Laxmi Nagar, etc. In the name of vote bank politics the local leaders help them to carry ration cards and voter ID cards. Thus, the initiatives taken by the government for providing necessary food items to people under BPL at subsidies are not reaching in the right hands. The illegal migrants who are taking advantage of these schemes through their ration cards and voter ID cards are making our people suffer in hunger and face lack of other facilities too.
The long term problem lies in the rise in their population. In future the number of family members dependent on state subsidies will rise too. It will be a huge burden on state and central exchequer and will cause fiscal deficit. So, the initiatives provided by State and Central Governments offering a sustainable livelihood to our needy people will go in vain.
Long Term Repercussion: Threatening Economic Survival
The Indian economy is growing at a faster rate and the migrant workers get plenty of employment in the construction, agriculture and tertiary sectors. During the election campaign in the summer of 2014, honourable Prime Minister Narendra Modi relentlessly criticised rivals in Bengal and Assam for allowing Bangladeshi infiltrators to stay in India, terming them a drain on resources that were meant for the locals.
Products like tea, petroleum and forest produce have been holding the economy of North-East so far. Most of the population there has agriculture as their means of livelihood. Even so, there is nominal surplus, the bulk of these illicit Bangladeshi infiltrators transform this already limited livelihood into theirs. These infiltrators colonise the river banks foremost; afterwards they gradually capture the local lands too. As a result, there is a clash between these infiltrators and the natives for the land. Even though there are laws existing that have been made to prevent alienation of tribal land, but they are highly unpopular in Assam. Meanwhile, on the other hand, Muslim migrants have bought lands on massive scale in the districts present at the border of Bengal and Bangladesh namely 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, West Dinajpur, etc. The same condition is also present in the bordering districts of Assam.
The migration has, gradually but surely, resulted in loss of land and livelihood for the poor farmers. The result of the whole phenomenon is highly economic in nature as the Bangladeshi infiltrators have come in search of better living conditions and livelihood. Also, the impact of these illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators keeps on going severe on India’s economy; as they are willing to labour for long hours and at a very less rate of wage. As of now, it is appropriate to say that if there are around 20 million Bangladeshi infiltrators in India, so as millions of Indians hiring them for labour. This suggests that there are some Indians in different regions who are accepting these illegal migrants as labour (may be to save money or it could be the fact that they are ignorant of such issues) which encourages others too to migrate to these places to contribute in unorganised and underground economic sector – for example as tea plantation workers in Assam and Bengal or as rag pickers, rickshaw pullers, domestic helps in big metropolitan cities like Delhi and Mumbai.
Jihadi Mayhem During Deepawali
Jihadi attack on Hindus during the Kali Puja & Deepawali in Bangladesh, 15 temples destroyed, over 100 injured. In a recent incident of communal violence in Bangladesh, a mob of radical Muslims destroyed more than ten temples and attacked hundreds of houses of Hindus in Brahminbaria District of Bangladesh during the Kali Puja and Deepawali celebrations.
The situation of Hindus in Bangladesh is not hidden as Hindu minorities are facing a grim situation and being persecuted by the Radical Islamic groups like Jamaat-e-Islami, Hefajat-e-Islam, Awami Ulema League, Hizbut Tahrir, Ahale Sunnatwal Jamat etc.
More than 100 people were injured and six persons were detained regarding the attacks. According to the Brahmanbaria Superintendent of Police (SP) Mizanur Rahman, around 150 to 200 persons launched the attacks and vandalised at least seven to eight idols of five temples in the area.
Nasirnagar Puja Committee’s General Secretary Khailpada Poddar alleged that at least 15 Hindu temples were vandalised and looted.
Attack on Hindu Temples and Deities in Bangladesh is not new.
While Bangladesh Government is trying and claiming a secular and non-violent situation for Hindus and other minorities there, the Hindu-Buddhist-Christian-Tribal minorities in Bangladesh are being brutalised by the majority Muslim people rampantly in reality. Brahmanbaria is a glaring example of that without any confusion.
Meanwhile, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has directed the Indian high commissioner in Bangladesh to convey to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina India’s concerns about the safety and well being of Hindus in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh police have arrested more than 50 people in connection with attacks on Hindu temples and members of the community in the Muslim-majority country.
The Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist Christian Unity Council (BHBCUC) estimates that more than one hundred Hindu houses and 17 temples have been vandalised and looted since the violence broke out on October 30.
By Rakesh Kumar Singh
(The writer is Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Ramanujan College, Delhi university)
ISI for Greater Bangladesh
ISI planned reality for this purpose through Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB). They have local insurgent groups to disturb Indian Armed forces and local administration in the North-East India. ISI have already started deep mounted campaign in Bengal with very much calculated manner, this very Greater Bangladesh includes Bangladesh, Bengal, Tripura and Barak Valley of Lower Assam (Cather, Karimganj and Hailakanti district with few parts of Dima Hast district. New map has been designed so far are being circulated with the Road Map during campaign. It has come to light from the intelligence report of the Central Government. After too much roar of Khagragarh Explosion at Bardman district of Bengal (October 2, 2014) many central intelligence agencies were engaged in close watch towards the so-called Muslim insurgent outfit groups. On this juncture those agencies (a groups of officers of Centre as intelligence department) collected authentic news about the activities of JMB in North-East India as well as Bangladesh in details. Findings of the report have made the agency officials much more headache for central Home department. According to the report, the allied insurgent groups are engaged in a deep routed conspiracy to disturb North-East India with the help of JMB. North-East India has an important geographical position for the safety and security of India. The Indo-Bangladesh border is very important in this matter.
The Indian intelligence officials are suspecting that China is behind the greater Bangladesh campaign through ISI and JMB. As per the senior intelligence officials, a high level ISI officer is looking after this matter. According to the sources, JMB has started a huge campaign for a newly greater Bangladesh. Recently, a secret high level meeting was held at Karimganj of Barak Valley by JMB on this juncture. A separate blue print of Map has been designed for the campaign. In that meet it has been decided to campaign throughout the Barak Valley (Assam), Nadia, Uttar 24 Pargana, Malda, Murshidabad and Indo-Bangladesh border of North Bengal for creating Greater Bangladesh. Some leaflets and handbills (for Greater Bangladesh) have been received by the intelligence officials so far as sources said. On those handbills, there is written ‘Jamaat-ul- Mujahideen Bangal,’ not Bangladesh. On some such handbills printed in Urdu, there is an appeal for restoration of Khilafat rule.
—Basudeb Pal
Courtesy: Organiser
