Years after then Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee called some Bengal madrasas a breeding-ground for anti-national elements before retracting from his statement the BJP has raised the issue once again and demanded immediate sealing of the Indo-Bangladesh border to prevent the trans-border terror moles from taking shelters in these madrasas.
Speaking on the issue Bengal BJP president Dilip Ghosh said there was an express need to seal the Indo-Bangla border so that the anti-national elements from the other side could not sneak into Bengal and hide in the network of madrasas which had mushroomed along the border areas.
Dropping clear hints of what the State BJP’s line of agitation against the Mamata Banerjee Government was going to be in the coming months, Ghosh said, “these madrasas get funds from foreign countries. These madrasas are creating a chain which is making the Indo-Bangla border vulnerable to anti-national activities, illegal cattle trade and smuggling.”
The districts of Murshidabad, North and South 24 Parganas, Nadia, Malda and North Dinajpur had in the recent decades witnessed a remarkable rise of illegal cattle trade, drug smuggling and even human trafficking.
last year Malda’s Sujapur and Baishnavnagar areas saw a large mob belonging to a particular community clashing with the BSF, burning down a Police Station and even attacking the nearby houses when actions were taken against illegal cattle trade and poppy cultivation.
Reminding how Bhattacharjee had once said that “madrasas in bordering areas are breeding grounds of fundamentalism,” Ghosh, a first time MlA from Kharagpur, said though the then Chief Minister retracted his statement “you cannot take it lightly as he was talking on the basis of IB reports.”
The infiltration had stopped in the northern and western borders of India and was still continuing in the eastern parts, Ghosh said, wondering why the Trinamool Congress Government was not taking measures like the new BJP Government in Assam to stop infiltration.
The BJP leader said his party would fight against the covert activities taking place in the bordering madrasas and “inform the people about what is going on.” He also said the issue would be raised in the State Assembly and the Government would be asked to take immediate action on this.
The BJP had won 3 out of 294 — highest till now — seats in the recently conducted elections. Finishing fourth behind Trinamool, left and Congress with about 10 per cent votes the Party has managed to poll more than 10,000 votes in at least 262 constituencies. It also polled more than 56 lakh votes this time round whereas it had got about 20 lakh votes in 2011. The saffron outfit is trying to build on this achievement, experts said.