Bangladeshi infiltrators, fake passports | Mamata turns table on Modi govt

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee On Thursday (January 2) levelled a serious accusation against a Central armed police force. She accused the Border Security Force (BSF) of ‘aiding infiltration’ by Bangladeshis to ‘destabilise’ West Bengal.

Though the degree of accusation was higher than earlier, this was not the Mamata government’s first such salvo against the Narendra Modi government.

Alleging a recent spurt in the infiltration of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, the West Bengal government has trained its guns at the Centre, blaming loopholes in the federal system for the problem.

“The BSF is allowing infiltration into Bengal and torturing women. The border is not in our hands. So, if someone accuses the TMC government of permitting infiltration, I will point out that it is the BSF's responsibility. Don't blame TMC for this," she was quoted as saying in an administrative meeting.

Passport verification

Apart from letting in infiltrators from across the border, the Union government has allowed laxities in the system that make it easier for them to obtain passports using fake documents, the state government claims.

The trigger for this charge is the recent revelation that at least 74 Bangladeshi nationals have obtained Indian passports using forged documents. The West Bengal police has so far arrested eight persons, including the prime accused Manoj Gupta, in connection with the passport scam.

The scam came to light after Assam police’s special task force last month arrested four terror suspects in connection with a passport racket. Their interrogations led to the arrest of two more persons from West Bengal’s Murshidabad district.

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Sleeper cells

Beyond Bangladesh, the Assam police drew links to Pakistan. Media reports quoted Assam Special DGP Harmeet Singh as saying the arrested persons had handlers in Pakistan and Bangladesh, and they were working to form ‘sleeper cells’ in different parts of India.

He claimed they also had plans to assassinate RSS and Hindu community leaders.

Subsequent investigations threw light upon alleged passport rackets in West Bengal, putting question marks on the state police’s role. Forged Aadhaar cards, ration cards and voter ID cards were used to obtain passports, it was alleged.

The modus operandi

A central intelligence official posted in West Bengal claimed that the most common modus operandi for fake passports is to get a ration card. It forms the basis for obtaining other fake documents, he said.

Indian scamsters, obviously with political and police connections, help infiltrators procure ration cards, it is suspected. One ploy is to lodge a general diary (GD) with the police, claiming a card is lost. Unused ration card numbers are used to file such GDs, the intelligence official said.

The rampancy of fake ration cards would imply the role of West Bengal police in the fake documents and passports scam.

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Twist in the tale

This is where the state government has chosen to go on the offensive. Amid the accusations against the state police force, beleaguered police chief Rajiv Kumar squarely blamed the Union government for the proliferation of the passport racket.

He based his claim on an October 2018 memorandum from the passport division of the Ministry of External Affairs, which curtailed the police’s role in the screening process for passport issuance.

In an effort to make the passport application process hassle free, a new process was brought in that does not require the verification of an applicant’s identity, address, or signature for the police verification report (PVR).

It also does not require the police to meet the applicant, Kumar pointed out. The document checks are entirely handled by Passport Seva Kendras and passport offices unless re-verification is specifically requested.

Call for stringent process

The West Bengal police has not stopped with making allegations. It has written to the MEA, proposing a review of the passport verification and distribution process to make it more stringent.

The state police’s District Intelligence Branch (DIB), local police stations, and senior officers should be allowed to play a more significant role in the process, it told the MEA. Kumar, however, did not elaborate as to what would be that “significant role”.

Passport officials are tight-lipped and refuse to be drawn into the “blame game.” But MEA sources, while admitting that there might be a need to rejig the system, said blaming the simplification of the passport issuance process for the scam is not correct.

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Long-term issue

Similar rackets existed in West Bengal even before the simplification of the process, sources said, pointing out that at least 10 persons were arrested from Murshidabad district for making passports with forged documents even in November 2017.

The National Investigation Agency (NIA) and other probe bodies have been repeatedly flagging the existence of such rackets in the state for several years, the sources said.

Political plank

The illegal infiltration from Bangladesh is not only a sensitive security issue, but also an important political plank, particularly for the BJP. That explains the accusations.

The West Bengal BJP is already trying to politicise the arrest of terror suspects and unearthing of the passport scam.

“West Bengal is a hub of such illegal immigrants, who have managed to mix with the general population with the help of a certain section of the society, emboldened by the reluctance of the police in taking any action against them,” claimed Leader of Opposition and senior BJP leader Suvendu Adhikari in an X post.

“The ruling party of the state perceive them as electoral assets which help them gain legal impunity,” he added.

Adhikari further demanded that the National Register of Citizens (NRC) be implemented in West Bengal to “weed out” the infiltrators, who are “sharing our resources like parasites and also threatening the security and safety of Indian citizens.”

Mamata on warpath

In a bid to turn the table on the BJP, Mamata, who also holds the home portfolio, joined the police chief with her Thursday's statement to blame the Centre for the fiasco.

“The reality is both the state and the central agencies are equally responsible for the failure to check infiltration and prevent people from procuring fake documents,” said security analyst and former journalist Nirmalya Banerjee.

According to BSF data, 716 Bangladeshi nationals — 415 Muslims and 301 Hindus — were detained while trying to sneak into India between August and December last year. The number of those who managed to infiltrate into the country will be much higher, the security agencies suspect.