Author: P R Ramesh
Publication: The Economic Times
Date: August 26, 2008
URL: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Opinion/Why_is_the_govt_supping_with_the_devils/rssarticleshow/3408336.cms
In the mid-90's, PV Narasimha Rao chose of
all places Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso to reiterate that the "sky is
the limit" as far as autonomy to Kashmir was concerned. No single statement
has done as much damage for the Valley and those four words became the benchmark
for negotiations with secessionist mobs for successive Central governments.
We would have expected politicians to learn
a lesson or two from Rao's folly. But perhaps encouraged by the Wagah border
candle light brigade and other bleeding heart liberals, Manmohan Singh actually
has gone a step further. He recently decreed that borders have become irrelevant.
If that indeed were the case, the prime minister
needs to tell us why so many of our young men are getting killed every day
while defending our borders? Some months ago, newspapers breathlessly reported
that the prime minister was moved to tears after watching the visuals of a
distraught mother of a Bangalore boy allegedly involved in a UK terror plot.
It would of course be foolhardy to expect
him to shed tears at the sight of the grieving young wife and and daughter
of Colonel JJ Joseph, commanding officer of the 45 Rastriya Rifles, who died
on last Friday defending our the borders. If anything, Singh's statement is
like fodder for the cross -border activists.
The result of this approach is magnanimous
approach towards illegal over-stayers, porous borders and a non-existent deportation
system. The BSF chief AK Mitra sized up the problem on Monday: he said there
was no data on the exact number of illegal migrants from Bangladesh.
Through last year, the BSF had intercepted
807 Bangladeshis trying to illegally cross over to our side (the actual infiltration
is roughly estimated to be double the numbers intercepted), the BSF chief
said the figure was almost 10000-12000 till a few years back. In other words,
what he could be saying is at least 24,000 Bangladeshis have been infiltrating
every year.
Even more shocking is the number of Bangladeshis
who entered on valid papers but disappeared subsequently. The cumulative figure
of Bangladeshi arrivals since 1972 -most come never to go back, is a whopping
12 lakh. Mr Mitra's revelations are indeed shocking at a time when illegal
immigrants have emerged as a major security threat due to their involvement
in various terror acts.
Bangladeshis owing allegiance to terror outfit
Huji(B) have earlier used the porous eastern borders to either cross over
from Bangladesh to carry out terror attacks or escape after the strikes. This
was the pattern during the Sankatmochan blasts at Varanasi and the Mumbai
local train blasts.
Huji tied up with local outfits like LeT and
Simi to unleash these attacks. On April 5, 2006, the Uttar Pradesh STF arrested
6 persons including Phulpur Pesh Imam Walilullah, a former Simi cadre who
was by then heading the HuJi(B) operations in eastern UP and had orchestrated
the Varanasi blasts. Huji cadres were also linked to the terror attack at
the Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore.
But if you think such empathic evidence will
prompt the government to clean the house, strengthen the borders and arm border
patrol officials of Mitra, perish the thought. "We do not get authentic
information from investigating agencies on time. Whatever action we have taken
so far against militant outfits like HuJI and LeT along the border were based
on media reports," Mitra told reporters on Monday. A truly worrying picture,
the policies of this government ensure that those who abide by and protect
the law end up losers and the saboteurs and terrorists win.
The government at the Centre foolishly thinks
that our hospitality and charity will breed goodwill for the country. A pandering
home minister is stealthily renewing his government's stand of not allowing
laws that can replace the present catch-and-release policy; an indignant UPA
is promoting fear-mongering and misinformation about POTA; and vote-bank appeasing
politicians are supping with community hardliners. Such political correctness
has cost us over 7000 lives since 2004. And could cost Manmohan Singh his
job and the Congress the government in 2009.
