Not a Friendly Move

India has taken steps to fence off its border along neighbouring Bangladesh. This has been an on-and-off affair with India. She has a plan to erect barbedwire fences along a large tract of the 1600-mile border with Bangladesh with the express purpose of stopping 'cross-border smuggling and trespassing'. Bangladesh Foreign Minister has rightly reacted to it saying that this will 'affect the relations with India'. He also wants to 'find out why it is being done'. In spite of the fact that Bangladesh has had some fruitful treaties signed with India since the coming to power of the Awami League government, India's position vis-a-vis the border-fencing seems to have remained as it was in the past. The argument put forward by the Indians sounds very naive as Bangladesh, with its meagre industrial base and costly agricultural produces, is hardly in a position to make any inroad into the Indian market. On the contrary, Indian goods are so cheap and have such a lucrative market in Bangladesh that the smugglers find it worthwhile to flood the market here with their merchandise. It is hard to believe that the Indian government is not aware of all these realities on the ground. So there has to be some other reasons and that brings us to 'trespassing,' meaning that Bangladeshi citizens have been allegedly illegally entering into India and staying there. This apprehension has been expressed by India so many times and it was sought to be allayed as many times by Bangladesh, but evidently to no avail so far. The government in Delhi has so many times tried to push in so-called Bangladeshis but their attempts have been foiled by resistance on our side. India is asking for transhipment facility through Bangladesh, and train service between the two countries; Dhaka-Calcutta bus service has been started and a new bus service between Dhaka and Agartala is in the offing to facilitate travel to the eastern states of India through Bangladesh. When these important steps are envisioned to facilitate movement of goods and people between these two countries, it is intriguing why the Indian government is going about the business of fencing the border. Furthermore, the kidnapping and killing of innocent Bangladesh citizens by the Indian Border Security Force (BSF) continue unabated and this is a serious matter that should be addressed by both the governments immediately.

We believe the government will effectively protest the inexplicable Indian action instead of expressing a mere dissatisfaction over it at a press conference like the foreign minister did.