Editorial Board Contents - Bureau of Police Research and ...

my sudden departure had come as a shock, butthe initiative taken for the cause of the widowssuffering in Banaras and Vrindavan would befollowed up. The plight of the widows there,however, continues to be more or less the same.PROBLEM OF BANGLADESHI MIGRANTSThe problem of migration of Bangladeshi’s intoIndia has been of considerable importance fromthe national security point of view. As DIB, Iwas aware of the problem which was slowly butsteadily becoming more and more serious. Duringthe time of Mr. B.N. Mullick, who was DIB from1950 to 1964, he had closely studied the issueand suggested a series of important measures to betaken by the Centre and the States. However, dueto various reasons, including political compulsions,they were not implemented adequately.After I assumed office as Governor of WestBengal. I went into the matter in great detail andI found that the problem was far more seriousthan I had perceived earlier. On this issue, I hadwritten to the President, the Prime Minister andthe Home Minister regularly, during my stayin Calcutta. In my very first monthly report forMarch, 1989 sent to the President of India onApril 6, with copies to the Prime Minister andHome Minister, I referred to my discussionswith the Chief Secretary, the Home Secretaryand the IG, BSF in charge of Bangladesh borderon March 14 and 17, and the problem ofBangladesh immigrants. In my second report forthe month of April 1989, I had drawn attentionto this problem, which was politicised byVishwa Hindu Parishad in its Press Conferenceat Calcutta on April 20. In my third report for themonth of May 1989, I had referred to this matterin fuller detail since I had, meanwhile, visitedthe North Bengal districts of Cooch Behar,Jalpaiguri, Darjeeling and West Dinajpur. I alsohad discussions with the Minister of ExternalAffairs Mr. P.V. Narasimha Rao on May 4, 1989at Delhi.After my tour in the North Bengal districts, whenI visited the border checkposts and discussed theproblem with local officials and the BSF officersconcerned, I wrote a detailed letter to ChiefMinister Jyoti Basu on June 5, 1989. The relevantparagraph of this letter is given below:"The question of influx of infiltrants/migrants/refugees from Bangladesh is becoming aserious factor which has to be taken noteof. I am aware of the correspondence on thesubject between the State Government and theCentre and the States request for strengtheningMTF as well as tightening of Passport and Visaformalities, and I fully endorse these suggestions.The BSF which mans BOPs along the border isbeing almost doubled and a strategic road isbeing constructed as a long-term measure alongthe border. However, there seems to be noawareness on the part of the people in the NorthBengal districts, of the serious implications ofsuch influx/infiltration. In none of the fourdistricts, did any MLA or Sabhadipati refers tothis issue on his own, and even when I invitedthem to give their views on this question, theydid not seem to consider it as a serious matter.As you are aware, the Muslim percentage ofthe population in the districts of Murshidabad,Malda and present West Dinajpur was 58.66,45.79 and 30.97 respectively, as per 1981census. The decadal growth rate of Muslimpopulation in 1981 in West Bengal was 29.6%while the overall growth of the State was 23.2%.The serious demographic and geo-politicalimplications of this phenomenon are indeedserious."After the Janata Dal Government assumed officeat the Centre, I wrote in January 1990 to Mr. I.K.Gujral with copy to the Prime Minister and theHome Minister, suggesting that a detailed studymay be carried out by a committee consistingof senior officers from the ministries of ExternalAffairs and Home, as well as from the StateGovernments of West Bengal and Bihar, followedby a thorough census, along with the nationalcensus of 1991, to ascertain the dimensions ofthe problem of Bangladeshi immigrants intoIndia. I left Calcutta on Feb.6, 1990.From 1991 to 2004 I was in Delhi, writingarticles periodically to various newspapers andmagazines. In May, 2004, I was appointed asGovernor, Uttar Pradesh. I served as Governor,UP till May, 2009. Thereafter, I returned to Delhiresuming my usual activities.30The Indian Police Journal, October - December, 2012, Special Issue