As this newspaper reported yesterday, the India-Bangladesh border in Assam has emerged as a hotbed for anti-India elements carrying out smuggling of fake Indian currency notes (FICNs), narcotics, and arms and ammunition despite the tight vigil maintained by the BSF. According to available data, FICNs amounting to Rs 18,71,500, Rs 28,43,390, Rs 32,26,900 and Rs 36,61,800 were seized along the border in 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011 (up to October) respectively. These crimes have been attributed to the unfenced stretches of the India-Bangladesh border in Assam, as well as on the “second line defence” Assam Police that is crippled by lack of adequate manpower, arms and ammunition, and the number of border outposts they must have in order to check such rampant illegalities. Blame ultimately goes to the state government of the day for having pretended all along that everything is fine and that cross-border crimes are a figment of ‘communal’ or media imagination.
The Tarun Gogoi government, which claims to have hit a political hat-trick on the strength of its indigenous vote bank, cannot feign ignorance or keep maintaining the classic charade it has excelled in. It is incumbent on the government to ensure that crimes along the border in question do not wreck the state’s fragile economy and generate instabilities of different hues. Assam has had enough of chaos.
The Sentinel, February 4