A new dimension was added to the communal-chauvinist behaviour of the Shiv Sena-BJP government of Maharashtra when it recently started to hunt for Bengali-speaking poor Muslim zari workers in various parts of Mumbai city, branded them as "Bangladeshis," and tried to deport them to Bangladesh without proper trial. What is surprising is that it did not make any distinction between Bengali-speaking Indians and Bangladeshis. Must we not remind that government that West Bengal is a part of India and that about seven crore people living there speak Bengali; they are Indian citizens? Must a Bengali-speaking person need be a Bangladeshi? But the blind chauvinist
government of Maharashtra did not bother to understand a very minor point like this. It will be recalled that Shiv Sena, the BJP's senior partner in Maharashtra, was born with chauvinist slogans like "sons of the soil" and "Mumbai for Marathis." They first attacked south Indians whom they called "Madrasis." People belonging to the four south Indian states, viz, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala, are commonly called Madrasis in Mumbai, and then the Sena tried to oust from the city in the mid-eighties. Later on, the same forces attacked people from Bihar and UP, locally called "Bhaiyas." And now they have targeted Bengalis, mainly Muslims, under the garb of deporting the foreigners. MALICIOUS PROPAGANDA At the very outset it must be made clear that nobody objects to deporting the foreigners, as the Maharashtra government as well as its supporting media are trying to convey to malign the CPI(M). This contention is a white lie, aimed to cover up the Sena-BJP's own communal designs. True, there are lakhs of foreigners in our country, mainly poor people from Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who have come here for earning their bread. However, it is the task of the central government, with its Border Security Force (BSF), to protect the borders, to check such infiltration. Secondly, fencing of the borders, as was decided earlier, is the job of the central government. Thirdly, the identification, scrutiny and proper court trial of the foreigners while giving them the right to self-defence, and then talks with the concerned foreign governments through the external affairs ministry to finalise the modality of deportation, as was done before sending the Chakma refugees from Tripura back to Bangladesh -- all these are also the jobs
of the central government, to be discharged with the help of different state governments. But if the central government fails to discharge all those duties properly, it has no right to blame others. What we have always maintained is that this sensitive job should be done carefully and efficiently so that real foreigners are deported in an organised, civilised and humane manner. Besides, international experience says the poor labour force always travels to richer countries for livelihood. Lakhs of Indians, for instance, are living and working in the Gulf countries. And for the same reason, lakhs of poor people come to India from SAARC countries for petty jobs. If the government feels that their service are necessary, it may register them and give them work-permits, so that we know who are foreigners working here, and so that after work they go back to their respective countries. But all these are the jobs of the central government. Anyway, it is a different issue. IMPORTANT QUESTIONS But the issue here under discussion is very limited. It is a question of Bengali-speaking poor Muslims working in different parts of
the country. Thousands of such people hail from Howrah, Hooghly, 24 Parganas North and South, Midnapur, Murshidabad and Malda. They work in zari embroidery. From childhood, they get expertise in this work. As they work since early childhood, they are mostly uneducated. They are spread all over the country, mainly in Mumbai, Delhi, Surat, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Jallandhar, Ajmer, Jammu and other big or medium cities, wherever there is zari industry. They live in slums in these cities, stay together, work for 15 to 18 hours a day and somehow make the two ends meet. People from West Bengal have other expertise also such as in goldsmithry, diamond cutting and polishing, etc. Thousands of such people too are working in all big cities of the country for ages. In Mumbai, these zari workers are working in Bengalipura, Jogeswari, Antop hills, Wadela, Satara and some other areas, where zari work is concentrated. From time to time, the Mumbai police harasses them. It is no new phenomenon. In the market or at the railway station, whenever they speak Bengali, the police catches them and, terming them as Bangladeshis, demands money. It is only when they pay some money, sometimes Rs 2000 to 5000, that they are let off. If they fail to pay, they are taken into custody, beaten and tortured. And now they are being deported to Bengladesh which is not their country in any case and where, therefore, they would again face a myriad of problems as foreigners. Because of such harassment, most of these people keep some proof with them such as school certificates, copies of ration cards, etc. But either the police tears them up or does not accept them as proof. Now, how can a poor worker be able to prove his citizenship on the spot, all of a sudden? Can one do it? Does every Indian always carry some document in his or her pocket? If not, why only these poor Muslim
boys have to carry such proofs in their own country? Are they second class citizens? They are asking us all these questions. What is our reply? HIGHLY OBJECTIONABLE Deportation of foreigners is a continuous process and must continue. But never were genuine Indian citizens deported, as was being done recently, without any proper scrutiny and indiscriminately. This is highly objectionable. A batch of 26 persons was first taken by the Mumbai police, on July 15, to the Bangladesh border and handed over to the BSF. Some of their relatives contacted the BSF at Kalyani in West Bengal. Then the deportation process was stopped. All the detainees were taken to the Salt Lake police station. On the preliminary enquiry, it was found that 18 out of those 26 were Indians. Their case is now in court. It was already known to the people when the second batch was taken from Mumbai by Kurla Express, on July 21. When I visited Bengalipura recently alongwith Ahilya Rengnekar and Mahendra Singh, I found that the BPT area slum is not fit even for animals to live in; it was a dirty, filthy basti without any civic facilities, a living hell. Here, a large number of zari workers are staying and working. They complained that a large police force conducted a raid in the area on the July 12 midnight and rounded up 34 zari workers. They were produced in a court on July 13. The next date of hearing was July 23, but before that hearing these people were deported
on July 21, without any court order. This act of illegal deportation was reported in Bengali newspapers next day. Naturally, this caused serious concern among the guardians of those boys and the people of Howrah district, from where most of them hailed, gathered at Uluberia and Chengail stations. Some 8 to 10 thousand people stopped Kurla Express and searched for their sons. They found, to their horror, that all those boys, alongwith some women, were tied and chained with the window rods in a closed compartment. They identified those boys. In the meantime, men of the Maharashtra Police, who were accompanying them, opened fire on the
mob, but in the mob fury they ultimately opened the door and let the detainees go. The big gathering was emotionally surcharged, but the local MLA reached the spot and tried to pacify the mob. The Police Superintendent of Howrah also reached the spot, ordered a lathicharge on the mob and firing in the air, and ultimately controlled the situation. The mob rescued those boys who would have been otherwise pushed through the Bangladesh border, and then they would have been either killed or jailed for life. This is a gross violation of civil as well as human rights. CENTRE'S INACTION What is most surprising is that the Maharashtra government did not inform the West Bengal government that they would pass through West Bengal up to the border. Its policemen did not seek any help from West Bengal Police during the passage and even opened fire on the people in another state. All these acts of the Maharashtra government are reprehensible and illegal. This matter was raised in parliament, on July 17, well before these incidents took place. I wrote a letter to the Union home minister, L K Advani, also met him and requested
him to intervene. I gave him the names of Indian citizens who were about to be deported. But the central government took no action. Instead, it indirectly supported the inhuman, illegal action of the Maharashtra government. A third batch of 38 people was taken for deportation on July 29. But after the Uluberia incident, the Maharashtra Police did not dare proceed further illegally and handed over this batch to the West Bengal police at Khargapur. All of them are in custody and were placed before a magistrate. Many of them are genuine Indian citizens, as has been prime facie proved. Soon it will be known how many genuine Indians were about to be deported by the Maharashtra government. COMMUNAL GAME These incidents exposed the communal and chauvinist character of the Maharashtra government. As the alliance partner of Shiv Sena, the BJP is naturally supporting the former on this so called foreigners issue. Unfortunately, the Trinamul Congress of West Bengal also supported the Maharashtra government's action which all right thinking
people have opposed. When a debate was held in parliament, all parties, except the BJP, Shiv Sena and Trinamul Congress, condemned such inhuman attacks on the poor Bengali-speaking Muslim zari workers. A team of CPI(M) leaders from Maharashtra visited the area and met the victims. CPI(M) MLAs also raised the issue in Maharashtra assembly. Biplab Dasgupta and myself met the victims along with CPI(M) leaders from Mumbai. The chief minister had been briefed by Biplab Dasgupta. We also met the home secretary (A) and discussed the issue in detail. Our demand was that while continuing the deportation work as per the law of the land, the government should ensure that no genuine Indian citizen is harassed. Police raids must not be conducted in the midnight, or after 9 p m and before 7 a m. The documents produced by those workers should be examined properly. Bengali documents should be authentically translated into Marathi or English by a competent person. If anybody gives his address in West Bengal, that should be checked through the SDO/DM of that area before action is initiated. Bail should not be opposed for those who are in Mumbai jail, and they should be given full opportunity and time to prove their citizenship. The certification by respectable leaders from Mumbai should be accepted before the police initiates action. Associations should be consulted for proper identification.
For deportation, the state government adjoining the border should be informed and its help sought to take the deportees to the border. The governments of Maharashtra and West Bengal should meet, discuss and find a correct way for future action. The minimum human civic facilities should be provided to the slums where zari workers live and work. The centre also should play its role, call a tripartite meeting and take appropriate joint action in this regard.