West Bengal BJP apprehends large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh

KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP leadership on Saturday submitted a memorandum to the governor MK Narayanan saying that they apprehended large-scale infiltration to the state from Bangladesh following the recent turmoil in the neighbouring country. The BJP delegation also urged the governor to take up the issue with the Centre and convince them to put diplomatic pressure on the Bangladesh so that minorities in the neighbouring country could live safely and no large-scale infiltration into India from the country could take place.

"We are also of the opinion that religious fundamentalists from Bangladesh and their Pakistani collaborators might take undue advantage of the Shabag Protest in Bangladesh to infiltrate into India and carry out their operations in our country. We are also not ruling out the possibility of flaring up of communal tension in our border areas which are close to Bangladesh. Smuggling of arms and ammunition, drug and other cross border crimes might go up once our own government fails to take any step to check infiltration from our neighbouring country," the BJP has said in its memorandum to the governor. The BJP, however, believes that protecting of the refugees from Bangladesh who are economically not in a very sound position should be looked into by the Union government as well as West Bengal government.

"In the case of attacks on Tamils in Sri Lanka all the political parties and the State Government of Tamil Nadu had caused the Central Government to put pressure on the Government of Sri Lanka for the safety of Tamils in that country. But all the political parties of India have remained silent on the issue of violence on Minorities in Bangladesh, presumably with a view to guard their vote bank in India," the memorandum said.

The BJP leaders who met the governor also said that "We are equally surprised at the silence of West Bengal Government on this issue."