How BJP offensive on Bangladesh is roiling politics on the Bengal border

Every few weeks, Prosenjit Das visits Bangladesh, either to meet his relatives or on business.

For the 37-year-old resident of Shimultala, a village in Bangaon in West Bengal, close to the India-Bangladesh border, it simply means taking an auto to the immigration checkpost and crossing over on foot. Das continued to travel this way even after August 5 – when the Sheikh Hasina government fell in Dhaka.

“I was in Dhaka for 10 days till November 20,” Das told Scroll. “I did not face any problems.”

But the recent reports of attacks on minorities in Bangladesh, especially Hindus, have held him back.

“Someone like me, who goes to Bangladesh once a week, is now afraid to visit,” said Das. “What if something happens to me?”

Das, like most other residents of this region in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district, has relatives across the border.

In 1971, millions of Bengali Hindus from Khulna and Jessore districts had crossed the border, fleeing the assault of the Pakistan army. They took the historic Jessore Road, which led out of Bangladesh to Bangaon and Kolkata. Das’s family was among them.

The recent violence in the neighbouring country has Das worried, but news from his relatives in the adjoining Jessore and Khulna districts has not been overtly alarming. “My relatives tell me that they have not faced many problems,” Das said. “Once the government fell, people from madrassas even protected our temples. But now we hear about incidents of attacks on homes and temples in other parts of Bangladesh. So, we are naturally anxious.”

According to Das, the turmoil is greater in Chattogram division, which borders Tripura and where the Hindu monk Chinmoy Krishna Das, arrested on sedition charges, heads a religious centre.

As Scroll visited towns and villages on India’s border with Bangladesh in West Bengal, we found Das’s disquiet shared by many residents with relatives across the border.

Many of them said that the Indian government must put diplomatic pressure on Bangladesh to protect its minorities.

“The government should be more vocal,” said Das. “They should speak for the Hindus.”

The turmoil in Bangladesh is not just cause for personal anxiety, it is also roiling politics in this border region.

The Bharatiya Janata Party in Bengal has aggressively mobilised its workers on the issue to project itself as the “only party” that cares for “Hindu lives”.

In the last few weeks, BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari has held over 20 protests and rallies across the state on the state of minorities in Bangladesh, sometimes resorting to provocative rhetoric against the Mohammad Yunus-led interim government.

Observers pointed out that the BJP’s offensive is shaping a growing demand from residents – that political parties across the spectrum speak up for Bangladesh’s minorities. The pressure appears to have worked, with Trinamool Congress leader and chief minister Mamata Banerjee demanding that the Indian government ask the United Nations peacekeeping forces to intervene in the neighbouring country.

The Petrapole border

Petrapole, less than 10 km from Bangaon, is a large land port along the India-Bangladesh border in North 24 Parganas district, about 80 km from Kolkata.

On December 5, when Scroll visited, it seemed business as usual. Trucks trundled past immigration counters, carrying cargos of cotton fabric, vehicles and motor parts. The number of people crossing the border was, however, relatively less.

One of those who arrived in India that afternoon to meet his relatives was Chaityana Sikdar, a resident of Jessore district in Bangladesh.

Sikdar, who is in his 50s, admitted that the situation back home was worrying. “But the attacks are not widespread,” he said. “Hindu homes and temples were attacked in some places, not all. Some have also used this turmoil for their personal agenda or to grab land.”

Nevertheless, the fear among the minorities was undeniable. “Many of them want to come to India permanently,” he said.

He added: “Dui desh er ugro boktoibyo o situation kharap korse.” The two nations have made the situation worse by their belligerent statements.

In Petrapole and its surrounding areas, Bengali Hindu families are also worried about the impact of the unprecedented acrimony in India-Bangladesh relations on the border trade.

“The income of those who depend on the import-export business [through Petrapole] has become nil,” said Das. “From here, 5,000-7,000 people would go to Bangladesh for trade every day and the same number of people came to India. This business has stopped.”

Dhirtiman Pal, a customs clearing agent at Petropole, told Scroll that the number of people travelling to Bangladesh is now less than 1,000 a day – a 10-fold drop. “Everything looks bleak. We don’t know when things will be normal.”

Bappa Saha, 40, who owns a transport business in Bangaon, said, “I used to earn Rs 40,000-Rs 50,000 a month, but it has come down to Rs 10,000 now because of the crisis,” Saha said. “If it continues, our livelihoods will be affected.”

The BJP’s mobilisation

The BJP has taken the lead in protests against the Bangladesh government, even as the Narendra Modi government engages diplomatically with the new dispensation.

On December 2, more than 1,000 monks from across West Bengal participated in a march at the Petrapole border under the banner of the Akhil Bharatiya Sant Samiti. The march was led by Adhikari, who called for “Hindu unity” and urged “Hindus to wake up.”

“It was not a political call or event but the BJP was the driving force behind the protest,” said Ashok Kirtania, Bangaon Uttar MLA and a BJP leader from Matua community. “We are protesting in every ward and villages along the border.”

Many of the rallies saw sadhus and Hindu religious leaders take part. A human rights activist in the region flagged this as a worrying trend. “Sadhus and monks in West Bengal did not associate with political parties so openly earlier.”

However, BJP leaders are also facing questions from the people.

“I was asked by the people why the Indian government is not taking stronger steps despite being headed by the BJP, which is pro-Hindu,” Kirtania said. “We are trying to make them understand that there is a system and one can’t attack another free country.”

The massive rally led by BJP-RSS near the border saw Hindus take part in sizeable numbers, said residents.

A Petrapole resident, who works as an autorickshaw driver, said the BJP leaders at the rally stirred up animosity against Muslims living in Bengal. “They urged us not to talk with Muslims, not to interact with them,” he said, asking not to be identified. “The protest was not about Bangladeshi Hindus. The BJP’s aim was different. They want to create Hindu-Muslim riots here.”

‘Hindu consolidation’

A Petopole-based government teacher from the Hindu community, who requested anonymity, said the history of the region’s residents – many of whom faced communal persecution in then East Pakistan – have always made them receptive to the BJP.

“Hindus who were forced to migrate from Bangladesh in different times form the vote bank of the BJP here,” the teacher said. “But the idea of Hindu persecution in Bangladesh is now drawing even the so-called secular Hindu families towards the BJP.”

Saha admitted that the BJP was playing up the attacks on Hindus for its political gain. “But we also can’t say they are doing a bad thing,” he said. “There is a need for a protest too. It is the BJP which is aggressively talking and protesting about Hindu interests in Bangladesh.”

The rhetoric about protecting Hindu interests, said political observers as well as residents, is forcing the BJP’s rivals to react.

Das, for instance, said the ruling Trinamool Congress must also register its protest. “It was necessary for Mamata Banerjee to speak up, as a chief minister of the neighbouring state,” Das said. “She was almost silent [till the BJP’s protests].”

Political observers pointed out that the Trinamool Congress might calibrate its stand on the issue. “I have a sense that even Trinamool Congress supporters who are Hindus want the party not to brush the issue under the carpet,” said Ayan Guha, a political scientist and author of The Curious Trajectory of Caste in West Bengal Politics.

Shubonkor Das, who runs a hotel in Bongaon, pointed out: “Mamata Banerjee was under pressure and she only spoke when Suvendu came to Petropole on December 2.”

Guha predicted that the turmoil in Bangladesh would only add to Hindu consolidation in the BJP’s favour. “The Hindu consolidation can be countered if Muslim leaders of the Trinamool Congress and Muslim members of the civil society speak out against the Hindu massacre in Bangladesh,” Guha said.

He added: “But there is no automatic correlation between Hindu consolidation and poll results because in West Bengal electoral success depends to a large extent on organisational might. The BJP cannot match Trinamool Congress’s organisation.”

The need for peace

Even as they urge political parties to dial up the pressure against the alleged violence against Hindus, the residents of this border region are also wary of the conflict dragging out.

“Diplomatically, both the governments should speak, but the statements should not incite or disturb the harmony,” said Shubonkor Das.

Saha, the transporter, said the crisis in Bangladesh following the takeover by the Mohammad Yunus government is being used by vested interest groups to play “Hindu-Muslim politics”. “And, neither Hindus nor the Muslims understand this. They are giving priorities to their own religion and heading towards a fight,” he said.