The Bharatiya Janata Party on Saturday flayed the government for the recent Land Transfer Agreement with Bangladesh and demanded that complete details of the land transfer protocols with all relevant survey maps be placed before Parliament.
The National Executive of the party, in a resolution, charged the government with ignoring the ‘feelings and sentiments' of the people of Assam and West Bengal while inking the pact.
The agreement was signed during the recent visit of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visit to Dhaka.
The BJP argued that in the name of rationalisation of adversely possessed lands and exchanging enclaves of Bangladesh in India and vice-versa, the rights and interests of the local population were severely compromised, leading to unrest throughout Assam and in many parts of north Bengal. It said a fact-finding committee of the BJP, which visited the affected people, found widespread confusion and anxiety prevailing among the people because they were not taken into confidence.
“The people are agitated because they rightly feel that the Government of India has legitimised encroachment of Indian territories by Bangladesh through the September 6, 2011 agreement, which amounts to formally transferring land illegally occupied by the erstwhile East Pakistan and later Bangladesh over the years.”
The resolution contended that although nearly 1,500 survey maps were exchanged between Indian and Bangladeshi officials before re-demarcation of the border, these maps were not in the public domain.
“The BJP is of the view that the demographic invasion of India by illegal Bangladeshi migrants has already severely affected the identity, culture and social cohesion of many parts of Assam and West Bengal. No further compromise with the country's national interests can be permitted.”
