Dhaka/Kolkata: Bangladesh has reacted to India’s efforts to complete the fencing along the border between the two countries.
Soon after the West Bengal cabinet cleared the transfer of land to the Border Security Force (BSF) to fence the sections lying unprotected, Bangladesh’s foreign affairs adviser of the country’s prime minister, Tarique Rahman, said that “Dhaka cannot be intimidated with barbed wire”.
Transfer of land for the fence in West Bengal has been a major issue. The former government was even pulled up by the Calcutta High Court for its failure to hand over the land.
In his first cabinet meeting after taking over as the new chief minister Suvendu Adhikari said his government has decided to transfer the land to the BSF, as reported by The Times of India.
The foreign affairs adviser of Bangladesh, Humaiun Kobir, said: “People of Bangladesh are not afraid of barbed wire… The government of Bangladesh is also not afraid; where we need to talk, we will talk.”
He went on to target Adhikari and said that election rhetoric and actual governance are two different issues, adding: “Bangladesh wants to see whether the Adhikari govt is following election rhetoric in governance”.
The issue of illegal immigration from Bangladesh was a major issue during the West Bengal elections this year, with the BJP accusing the Trinamool Congress of sheltering the infiltrators to increase its votebank.
Kobir did not deny that infiltration takes place and said the Indian government should adopt a more “humane approach” in resolving border disputes, if it wants to bolster people-to-people ties.
“We do not want to become involved in their internal politics,” he said, as reported by TOI.
West Bengal shares a 2,216-km border with Bangladesh. This is the longest stretch of the border between the two countries. While most of the border is fenced, there are stretches where fencing has not been possible due to the non-availability of land.
Kobir also said that Dhaka would not stay mum on the “push-back” issue.
“Bangladesh has its own plans and responses. I hope matters will not proceed in that direction,” he said.
Bangladesh home minister Salahuddin Ahmed had earlier expressed hope that people would not be “pushed” into the country after the BJP’s rise to power in Bengal, as reported by News18.
“I hope no such incident (push backs) will happen,” Ahmed told reporters on Wednesday, adding the Border Guard Bangladesh had been asked to stay alert along the shared frontier.
India has responded by asserting that the remarks from Bangladesh over fears of “push-back” must be perceived in the context of undocumented Bangladeshi nationals.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal told a weekly press briefing: “We have seen comments of this nature being made in the last several days. These comments must be seen in the context of the core issue of the repatriation of illegal Bangladeshis from India. This obviously requires cooperation from Bangladesh”.
