Is barbed-wire fencing consistent with friendly relations?
by Ikteder Ahmed
BANGLADESH'S immediate neighbour is India. Save for a relatively small
tract of frontier shared with Myanmar to the southeast, and the Bay of
Bengal to the south, Bangladesh is surrounded by its mighty neighbour
India from all sides. Since the inception of Bangladesh, business and
commerce with India, which has seen rapid advances in the past few
decades, has been heading towards a grossly disproportionate bias
towards India. This is one of the thorniest issues and of late a
number of such disputed issues have gathered moss for having remained
unresolved for years.
Bangladesh, contrary to established norms when it comes to friendly
relations, has come to enjoy rather a curiously multifaceted and
multi-layered relationship with India that has come to be defined and
influenced by various exogenous factors. Significant among these is
the political tilt of the government towards India. Overall, however,
while a positive outlook may be best summarised regarding the level of
relationship between Bangladesh and India, it would be worth a mention
that underneath this fine but notoriously unstable veneer lies an
undercurrent of prickly issues which, while not publicly acknowledged,
has come to evoke considerable unease and disconcerting views among
various quarters in Bangladesh.
Predominant among these thorny issues which have yet to be amicably
and constructively sorted out is the issue of cross-border shootings
by the Border Security Force, India's border enforcers, of Bangladeshi
nationals on often flimsy grounds. Of late, this issue has come to
enjoy a vastly expanded horizon of attention among the general
populace and experts alike in Bangladesh. However, equally perplexing
is the relatively lethargic pace of Bangladesh's reactions to such
occurrences. While such occurrences have shot up alarmingly in the
past few years, the lack of an effective approach by both the
Bangladesh government and the Indian government to address the
underlying factors is undeniably helping to further exacerbate the
problem. Furthermore, there is the general feeling of India's border
guards being given a free rein to pull in all the stops with regards
to halting the flow of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to India with
impunity. Thus, the lack of an effective framework to deal with
various associated outstanding issues, in particular the issues of
enclaves and exclaves and border demarcation, has led the Indian
authorities to act boldly against Bangladeshi nationals attempting to
cross the border. Fanning the flames further is what can be best
described as apparent meekness on part of the Bangladesh government in
its perceived reluctance to lodge strongly-worded protests with the
Indian government.
It should be noted that in December 2010, a galling report by the
internationally renowned NGO Human Rights Watch has further elevated
the level of awareness regarding the plight that Bangladeshi nationals
have to face near the border with India. The report, aptly named
'Trigger Happy', documents extrajudicial killings, arbitrary
detention, torture, and ill-treatment by the BSF.
Many people routinely move back and forth across Bangladesh's border
with India to visit relatives, procure supplies, and search for jobs.
However, some engage in petty and serious cross-border crimes. The
Border Security Force is mandated to address illegal activities, such
as narcotics smuggling, human trafficking, and transporting fake
currency and explosives. It also works to stop militants planning
violent attacks in India's restive northeast. However, in its pursuit
to oversee its objectives it would appear that the BSF tends to be
rather too liberal with regards to pulling the trigger.
In many of the cases which have been investigated by Human Rights
Watch, however, the victims were cattle rustlers, farmers, or
labourers who said they were hoping to supplement their meagre
livelihoods by working as couriers in the lucrative but illegal cattle
trade that is rampant at the West Bengal border.
Of late, visiting Indian high officials have given ironclad assurances
that they would see to it that cross-border shooting incidents are
toned down to a minimum, and would also encourage the use of rubber
bullets, instead of conventional ammunition which are inherently
lethal to stop influx of Bangladeshis into India. According to a
report, although border killings by the BSF has come down quite
significantly this year, at least 17 Bangladeshis were mowed down by
BSF fire and 49 others wounded between January and June. Thus, it
becomes apparent for an exhaustive solution to this quagmire, it is
imperative to approach some of the bigger issues that stand at a
stalemate between India and Bangladesh, the ramifications of which
have allowed this practice of shooting by the BSF at Bangladeshi
citizens to thrive and go unbridled.
Of another growing concern is the fact that a comprehensive
barbed-wire border fencing network, at a cost of $2.1 billion, is
scheduled for completion in the near future. While in India, the
1,790-mile fence, which barricades nearly the entirety of the
India-Bangladesh border, is seen as a cure to the persistent ills of
illegal immigration from Bangladesh, influx of 'terrorist elements'
from Bangladesh as well as safeguarding jobs in the economy, to
ordinary Bangladeshis, this barrier seems emblematic of what can be
misconstrued as India's irrational fears of a neighbour seemingly
based upon rather ludicrous grounds.
Furthermore, among other thorny issues that remain to be settled is
the issue of Bangladeshi exclaves located on Indian soil. Owing to the
perceived shortcomings of the Bangladeshi government, as well as lack
of any institutional framework, the citizens of these enclaves are
deprived of the rights and services that Bangladeshi citizens are
entitled to. Thus, to come to the mainland, these people have to risk
their very lives while trying to sneak past the border below the BSF's
notice, as catching their attention would almost inevitably means
shooting.
With regards to the issue to exclaves and enclaves, and resolving of
other outstanding issues though, one positive that can be gleaned is
that Indian home minister P Chidambaram expressed optimism, during his
recent visit to Bangladesh, that these issues would be resolved before
Indian prime minister Manmohan Singh's arrival on September 6.
However, the reality is that for many reasons not to be mentioned,
people of the country in general are less optimistic regarding any
groundbreaking resolution of the various outstanding issues.
Ikteder Ahmed is a former judge and registrar of the Supreme Court.
iktederahmed@yahoo.com.
http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/op-ed/31802.html
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