Author: Abhijit Bhattacharyya
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: November 23, 2005
Lieutenant Gulam's successful 'mission' across
the country raises questions about the security of India
There was a picture of a Bangladeshi, Gulam
Mustafa Sheikh, in newspapers recently. He was arrested for impersonating
as an Indian armyman. Dressed in a soldier's gear, he carried a photo-identity
card of a 'Lieutenant' of the Indian Army.
He flashed three ribbons known as 'Sainya
Seva Medal', 'Operation Vijay Medal' (for participating in Kargil in 1999)
and 'Vishisht Seva Medal' on his left breast with an added insignia of good
shooter's badge normally used by combat training instructors. On his right
chest was the badge of a 'Qualified Paratrooper'. The 'urge' for 'conversion
of loyalty' from Dhaka to Delhi has visibly converted Ghulam Mustafa Sheikh
of Bangladesh to 'Lieutenant Virendra Singh' of the Indian Army.
Bravo Ghulam Mustafa Sheikh. Magnanimous Indians
salute your initiative, ingenuity and intelligence. They admire your 'love
for India' and wonder at your courage in running away from your 'Sonar Bangla'
to 'not so Sonar India' and join the Indian troops as a Lieutenant (without
any remuneration) to serve the cause of your own motherland, Bangladesh. Or,
is it to serve your original fatherland Pakistan, from whom you forcefully
tore away in 1971, to establish an exclusive linguistic nation based on your
Bengali language, intolerant of all other languages?
For the sake of information, the 'Lieutenant'
serving in the Indian Army is a spy impersonating as an Army officer in the
Delhi Cantonment area "collecting important details about the Army and
other intelligences in Delhi". He has been operating from different cities
of India for the "past couple of years" and is "also wanted
in some cases in Mumbai". Moreover, according to media reports, "He
had been visiting sensitive Army locations and will be taken to Mumbai, Baroda
and Belgaum from where he had been operating for the past two years."
How so sweet a nation we collectively belong
to! A Bangladeshi national, presumably a Bengali-speaking and Islam-following,
with a hopelessly unfamiliar linguistic tone, tenor and pronunciation, false
identity card, goes on harming the mighty Indian garrison and violating the
law of a foreign land with impunity. He has the tenacity and temerity to move
like a fish in the familiar Dhaka pond of Delhi Cantonment.
Critics may disagree with the harsh language
of this author, but can they really afford to ignore the level of Bangladeshi
penetration in the body politic, economics and society of India! And now into
the Indian Army? First, it was the 'harmless' Bangladeshi refugee in the aftermath
of the Pakistani massacre of Bengali men folk and the indiscriminate criminal
assault on their fair sex. From drop to trickle and trickle to flood, the
fancy and fantasy of 'Sonar Bangla' has spilled over as a nightmare for India.
Reeling under the devastating spell of fundamentalism
and terrorism, the Bangladeshi Lieutenant in the Indian Army is an 'intelligent'
man to carry out 'intelligence' directives for forces inimical to India. One,
however, is not surprised any more because we have enough Indian sympathisers
as well as supporters to help the "hapless and poverty stricken Bangladeshi"
crossing the border. He can then get ration and other identity cards to get
enlisted into the voters' list in any of the seven Northeastern or even Eastern
States of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand or Orissa. He can then move in deeper
for 'Bharat darshan', first as a 'pilgrim' and then as operating for fundamentalist
or terrorist outfits to fulfil their missions of 9/11, 7/7, and 29/10, traversing
from New York to New Delhi via London.
In fact, there now appears to be a two-fold
strategy for those inimical to India: Defensive and offensive. The defensive
ploy is to gather intelligence, and pass on the information. However, these
being 'high risk' specialised jobs, the number of operational people understandably
is restricted to a select few. The offensive operations, on the other hand,
are a 'broad band', 'mass based' infiltration, circulation and consolidation
into the social system wherein the advantage lies with Bangladesh owing to
the cocktail of 'corruption' and 'communalism'.
Being the most corrupt of all nations (according
to the Transparency International) a Bangladeshi like 'Lieutenant' Gulam Mustafa
Sheikh 'of the Indian Army' can bulldoze his way through the 'action' which
he is best at doing. Being corrupt himself, he effortlessly wins over his
'foreigner' brethren of India who, too, are not known to be 'very honest'.
The Indian friend of 'Lieutenant' Sheikh may at best be slightly less dishonest
because Delhi's standing in the overall corruption index is a shade better
than Dhaka's.
Little wonder, therefore, that day in and
day out India is under attack from the East and from all angles, both right
and wrong.
Understandably, the biggest worry for the
'friends' east of India is the Indian Army, being capable of facing any challenge
and emerging victorious as seen from the first Kashmir war of 1947 to Kargil
1999, through the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak confrontation - with the only exception
being the 1962 war against the Chinese Army.
Hence, the best way to destroy India is to
destroy its Army. And, the best way to destroy the Indian Army is to do so
without a fight for which deep penetration strike capability is the sine qua
non. Hence, the likes of Bangladeshi Gulam Mustafa Sheikh joining the Indian
Army as Virendra Singh and 'exiting' therefrom as espionage agents of Bangladesh-Pakistan
axis of evil.
The Bangladeshi 'Gulam' of the Indian Army
indeed adds a new dimension to security scenario of India. Bangladesh does
not seem to be satisfied with an enlarged living space (lebensraum) being
cut out of Indian territory. Having tasted blood, Bengalis of Dhaka have increasingly
become more daring. What Indians cannot, or would not, do, the tiny Bangladeshi
national does with great élan.
Lieutenant Gulam's successful mission across
the length and breadth of the country also raises serious questions about
the security of India. How much damage 'Lieutenant' Gulam has inflicted on
the Indian Army? Should we not be ruthless on such 'Bangladeshi officers in
the Indian Army' in the future? What measures are being contemplated and initiated
for the future? Which Indians helped 'Lieutenant' Gulam in Delhi, Baroda,
Mumbai and Belgaum? How did he cross over to India with or without valid documents?
These and other questions need to be answered. After all, the answers will
have ramifications on India's national security.
The omen for India at present is far from
good as Bangla bhais have virtually spread to every corner of the country.
The latest, however, is a 'map of a disintegrated India', which has been sighted
on a Bangladesh website. More about it later. Till then, united India seems
to have accepted the ground reality of the penetrating power of the surplus,
unwanted and planted Gulams and Bangla bhais of Dhaka with a potential slogan
of 'Joy Bangla' reverberating the air in India.
(The author is an alumnus of the National
Defence College and the views are his own)
