Trinamul leaders have planned to flag incidents of alleged high-handedness of the Border Security Force (BSF) as they reach out to villagers near the India-Bangladesh border ahead of the panchayat polls.
“Only those who have faced harassment from the BSF can understand the plight of thousands who live near the borders. We have always raised our voices against the humiliation, curbs in movement and assault that these people experience for no specific reason,” said Udayan Guha, the north Bengal development minister who hails from Dinhata of Cooch Behar that shares borders with Bangladesh.
In north Bengal, six of eight districts share borders with Bangladesh, barring Kalimpong and Alipurduar.
Allegations of the BSF stopping farmers from going to their fields beyond the fences, preventing them from cultivating “tall” crops like corn and jute citing security reasons, halting people on border roads after dusk, and even assaulting people based on suspicion are reported regularly.
BSF recently faced protests from villagers in North Dinajpur for not letting them walk up to the fences to meet friends and relatives at an annual fair.
Trinamul also accused the BSF of being “trigger-happy” after incidents when Indians have been shot at during raids. Party leaders feel referring to these issues can help them get support in border villages ahead of the panchayat polls.
“These are issues which the villagers can easily relate to. Our party has always stood by them and the chief minister has time and again said the state government will not allow any coercive act by the BSF,” said a Trinamul leader of Jalpaiguri.
However, Shankar Ghosh, the BJP MLA of Siliguri, said Union home minister Amit Shah made it clear in Parliament on Wednesday that those trying to politicise the issue of BSF’s jurisdiction were backing anti-national elements.
“Thousands of border villagers have supported our party (the BJP) in recent elections. Trinamul knows this well. Hence, some leaders of the party are trying to foment tension with the help of those involved in border smuggling and other illegal activities so that they can win the rural elections by coercion,” alleged Ghosh.
In Lok Sabha, Shah said that the Centre had given authority to the BSF, the SSB and Assam Rifles to register cases under the NDPS Act if drugs and narcotics were seized at the borders.
Additional reporting by our Cooch Behar correspondent