Illegal Bangladeshi Immigration Into India
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A two year old TV documentary, perhaps originally produced by and telecast on Aaj Tak, on the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigration to India and its links to rising terrorist violence in many parts of the country. It is quite well researched and well made with interviews of many experts, on the ground investigations and hard data.
In the words of former CBI director Joginder Singh- India is ‘tolerating’ upto 5 crore(50 million) illegal immigrants on its soil.
2 cr Bangladeshis in India: Fernandes
Says proxy war by Pak main challenge
Tribune News Service
Chandigarh, September 27
The Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, said today that the failure of the country’s leadership to drive a tough bargain when Pakistan was on its knees after the 1971 war had led to problems like Kargil, Siachen, Kashmir and cross-border terrorism.
“We had 90,000 Pakistani troops taken prisoner in Bangladesh. We kept them and fed them for months in Indian camps”, said Mr Fernandes. “But we did not try to solve the Kashmir problem. No decisive action was taken. The result was Kargil. The LoC in Kashmir was drawn by two lieutenant-generals from India and Pakistan on a map. The LoC was 140 km long and at places, it was 2 to 4 km broad. It was not clear which area, valley or mountain fell in which country. Kargil would not have taken place had the line been drawn on the ground rather than on a map”.
The Defence Minister was speaking after inaugurating a two-day seminar on the country’s integrated defence organised by the newly formed Forum on Integrated National Security. Besides Mr Fernandes, a former Defence Secretary, Mr N. N. Vohra, and the RSS chief, Mr K. S. Sudershan, spoke at the inaugural session.
Mr Fernandes identified terrorism and proxy war mounted by Pakistan against India as one of the biggest challenges facing the country.
Mr Fernandes said corruption in paramilitary forces guarding our borders had led to large-scale illegal cross-border migration of Bangladeshi nationals, which was a cause of major concern.
“My discussions with the Eastern Army Commander this week revealed that about one lakh Bangladeshi nationals are crossing over to India every year, “Mr Fernandes said. “It is shameful to point out the reason for this,” he added. There are about 2 crore Bangladeshi migrants in India, which are altering the demographic character of the north-eastern states.”
The Defence Minister said another major disturbing trend was the nexus between the ongoing Maoist movement in Nepal and the Naxal movement in India. “The Defence Ministry has evidence that Nepalese Maoists are receiving arms training in Bihar and Jharkhand and this information has been passed on to the Home Ministry,” he said. Stating that some action has been initiated on this front, he added that presently there is no state in India which is not affected by the Naxal movement.
Unemployment and indiscipline were the other challenges listed by him. He said as many as one and a half lakh people died in the country last year because they had failed to maintain discipline on the roads. Corruption was another challenge which faced the country because once a person accepted a bribe, he could be bought by anyone and compromise even the national security in the process. Thus, both indiscipline and corruption were connected with national security.
Turning to media, he said, while it was no doubt a force multiplier in an hour of national crisis, it was guided by the adage that “anything positive is propaganda while negative is news”. The so-called coffin scam was a case in point. Without checking the facts, one newspaper had latched on to a half-lie based on a report given by a constitutional authority and created the “scam”. Mr Fernandes explained the position in some detail to emphasise that there was nothing in it.
Mr Vohra, said the country’s borders could not be fully secure if the hinterland remained in turmoil. India was a vast country and its security problems were due to a host of factors, including history and colonialism. Another factor complicating the problem was that the law and order was a state subject, but not every state treated it with the seriousness it deserved. In the past 20 years, there had been a sea change in the security environment with the arrival on the scene of the highlymotivated and trained youths ready to take on the might of the state. There was now extremist violence in nine states. Precious little had been done to check their growing connectiv3ity with Pakistan’s ISI. They were operating as if at their bidding, he added.
Mr Vohra also said complete politicisation of the police force was another cause of concern. The government had also failed to break the nexus between criminals and politicians and people with criminal records continued to get elected to legislatures. He also underlined the need for creating a federal crime agency and identifying federal crimes.
Mr Sudershan, traced the history of the country’s security environment over the past centuries and said while Indians had evolved certain rules of war and observed them even in adverse conditions, the invaders had no such qualms, with the result that indigenous rulers suffered defeats. They had also failed to keep pace with the latest military developments. Nor did they have any means of gathering intelligence. The result was enslavement of the country for centuries together. He emphasised the need for evolving a comprehensive plan for national security.