ABVP plans stir to oust Muslims who infiltrated across Bangladesh border into Bihar

Bangladeshi infiltrators quit India - the slogan of the Assam agitation has travelled to Purnea and Katihar districts in Bihar. The Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP), the youth wing of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), is mossing its forces for a stir to oust Muslims who they claim have infiltrated from across the Bangladesh border. Its moves are being countered by groups representing the Muslims of this traditionally peaceful area who suddenly find themselves threatened.Matters could come to a head at any time, say observers. The ABVP plans to formally launch its 'Assam-type' movement to demand the deportation of the foreigners whose numbers it claims have climbed to over 3.5 lakh in just over one decade.After its campaigns last fortnight, it plans a Jan Jagriti movement in the third week of this month. The Bhatia Muslims, against whom the movement is mainly directed are not taking the onslaught quietly and have called an all-India conference of their own to discuss the moves against them and chalk out a strategy to counter it. Other political parties are also muscling in on the act. The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M), which has a strong base in Purnea is planning to mobilise 5,000 workers for a march to Kishanganj to 'warn the people against the communal designs of vested interests out to create a social schism.'Taken Lightly: Surprisingly the state administration does not seem inclined to take the situation seriously. Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra merely shrugged: "The state government is alive to the problem of foreigners and measures are being taken to meet the situation." In Purnea, District Magistrate M.K. Dass says: "There is no report of organised infiltration. If there is infiltration only the West Bengal Government can check it. We have no common border with Bangladesh."The ABVP disagrees about the infiltration. The organisation claims that its members held a village-to-village survey in July and found that at least 3.5 lakh Bangladeshis have settled in various parts of the two districts. It claims that the heaviest concentrations are to be found in Purnea's Kishanganj sub-district. Says ABVP leader Sushil Modi: "Purnea's population registered an overall growth rate of 37.02 per cent during 1951-61 as against the state's average of 19.77 per cent. During this period the number of Muslims rose by a phenomenal 42.44 per cent. There is only one way to explain this rise." His organisation has been showering the region with handbills which allege that the infiltration is a continuation of an old plot to include a large swathe of West Bengal and Bihar as a part of the then East Pakistan.It points out that the Muslim League had held a conference in 1944, presided over by Raja Ghazanfar Ali and passed a resolution demanding that Purnea, Katihar, Santhal Parganas and the northern parts of Bhagalpur districts of Bihar and West Dinajpur, Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia and some parts of 24-Parganas of West Bengal be included in Pakistan. It says that there are over 33,000 Muslims in Kishanganj itself (Bhatia Muslims come originally from Bengal. Official figures state that there are 90,000 Bhatias in these areas.)Of this it says 15,000 in Kishanganj have got themselves enrolled on the voting lists in the last few years. There are three types of Muslims in the region - Bhatias, Bedias and Deshwalis. Deshwalis are treated as local people but Bhatias and Bedias are considered outsiders.Bangladeshi infiltrators leave India reads a slogan on Kishanganj wall: organised campaignPolitical Protection: The ABVP alleges that the Bangladeshis who have entered India for political and economic reasons are being protected by local politicians. 'They have got political and social sanction to stay in the country', say ABVP leaders. The organisation's handbill specifically names two leaders - Mohammad Hussain Azad, a former minister, and Rafiz Alam, Bihar Congress(I) chief, as supporting the Muslims who vote for them en bloc.Azad denies such allegations vehemently. He says, "I have repeatedly written to the Government and the Union Home Ministry to conduct a probe into the whole situation through its own agencies and if we are anti-national we should be arrested and prosecuted under the National Security Act. If not then those trying to create communal tension and disturb peace should be rounded up." Azad's explanation for the heavy concentration of Muslims is that hardly any Muslim went over to Pakistan in 1947. Now, he says, due to the heavy pressure on the land in West Bengal a large number of Bhatias and Shershahvadis have migrated from Murshidabad and Malda and bought land in and around Kishanganj. Consequently Azad claims that communal elements invited Bengali refugees and Santhals to settle down in the area and evict the Bhatias from their land.Other Muslim political leaders express similar views. Says Tariq Anwer, MP for Katihar and general secretary of the All-India Youth Congress(I): "The ABVP is raising the bogey of infiltration as a part of a bigger conspiracy to disturb peace in the country.'" He also claims to see the hand of outside agencies behind the movement.After trouble began, the police also claim they conducted a thorough investigation into the matter. Says Kishanganj Deputy Superintendent of Police K. D. Singh: ""A section of people are trying to create a psychology of infiltration. Actually there is no complaint regarding this from any quarter."Police Claims: Police Superintendent Ramesh Prasad Singh uses another argument to counter the ABVP's claims. He says that even if the claim of the ABVP is accepted in its entirety the number of foreigners settling in the area would not come to more than one lakh. Prasad admitted that some people in the towns appeared worked up over the issue but there was no such feeling in the countryside. Explaining how Bhatias came to settle in the area, Singh said that they are hardy and devoted to agriculture and over the decades landlords and jute growers had invited them from parts of West Bengal and used them as cheap labour. Since land is easily available in the area, he explained, the Bhatias started buying land in the region and selling their property in West Bengal and Bangladesh. Prasad admits that some people do come from Bangladesh but says, "Since Bangladeshis and Bhatias are Bengali-speaking and all come via Bengal it is very difficult to distinguish them and deport foreigners. Everybody claims that they have come either from Malda or Murshidabad."Accusing fingers are now being pointed by politicians at the Border Security Force (BSF). ABVP accuses it of turning a blind eye to infiltrators - for a consideration. But BSF men defend themselves and deny that they are in league with agents ferrying illegal immigrants across from Bangladesh. A BSF spokesman at a company headquarters in Kukradih in West Dinajpur district, only two km from the Nager river which serves as a border between Bangladesh and India, however claims that there are very few cases of people coming across the border. He said that the BSF operates under severe constraints and one patrol has to cover at least a three-km area. It is not therefore physically possible to cover all routes.Open Support: Observers in Purnea and Kishanganj say that the present problem has its roots in politics. They say that all opposition leaders in the area barring the CPI-M and other leftists have united on the issue of foreigners for political reasons. They also allege that the business community in Kishanganj is openly backing the movement. Said one observer: "While in the rural areas of Kishanganj Muslims are in majority, the situation in the towns is just the reverse and as a result the RSS and the ABVP have made deep inroads." Eighty per cent of Kishanganj's eight lakh population is Muslim.Besides, there are also other reasons for friction between the two communities. Earlier both Hindus and Muslims used to be elected to various posts. Now only Muslims are elected and the people have a fear that they may be politically swamped.Perceptions about the possibility of violence vary. Says Ajit Sarkar, 30, CPI-M MLA from Purnea Sadar constituency: "The threat of communal violence is very real. If the situation is not handled carefully by the administration, the areas will plunge into communal violence." Sarkar alleges that big landlords are behind the whole scheme and asks, "Why of all places should Kishanganj be marked out for an anti-foreigners agitation?" He also alleged that the administration was hand in glove with the ABVP and the landlords.The Government denies these charges and persists in its claim that infiltrations are few and far between. Recently Union Minister of State for Home Yogendra Makwana told the Rajya Sabha that on the basis of reports from the state Government it appeared that there were hardly any cases of infiltration.But this attitude will not make the problem go away. Whatever the truth be about the number of infiltrators, Kishanganj seems poised for trouble.Published By: AtMigration Published On: Oct 25, 2013 12:02 IST--- ENDS ---

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ABVP plans stir to oust Muslims who infiltrated across Bangladesh border into Bihar

Bangladeshi infiltrators quit India - the slogan of the Assam agitation has travelled to Purnea and Katihar districts in Bihar. The ABVP, the youth wing of the RSS, is mossing its forces for a stir to oust Muslims who they claim have infiltrated from across the Bangladesh border.

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