Focus

Official record shows only 626 Bangladeshis in Mumbai


How many times did we hear that Mumbai is getting deluged with Bangladeshis. And the word has been coming out from both the ruling Congress-NCP regime and the fanatic Shiv Sena. But lo and behold, the official records put the number of hapless Bangladeshis in Mumbai at only 626. Why then this scare? Apparently, the ruling combine and the Opposition are out to woo the Mumbai’s middle class. For this, the victimization of so-called Bangladeshis is necessary. And it hits two birds with a single stone. The native Muslim population also gets implicated by default. Who else gives these Bangladeshis shelter? Obviously Muslims. And in electoral democracy the perception is more important than reality.


While both Bal Thakeray with his son and nephew, as well as Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh raised a hue and cry against the Bangladeshis taking over Mumbai, one got a feeling as the government tried hard to make us believe, that these “encroachers” are “terrorists” and “crowding” the country in large numbers. That they are “all criminals” and the country’s peace, law and order, morality and culture- everything was at stake.


The two senior-most of the opponent politicians in Mumbai must have felt threatened by this since both agreed on this common issue; one would have thought this was a crisis or a critical issue!


We therefore decided to get out any information on the Bangladeshis, if not their whereabouts, their anti-social activities as claimed by the government, starting with their number. The Right to Information Act came to our help. The question raised has the official reply by now. There are only 626 Bangladeshis in the entire city of Mumbai, as of 2004. Six hundred and twenty six out of one crore people in Mumbai and we’re being made to believe they constitute an unprecedented threat!


And the slum-dwellers are to be defamed to get sympathy from the middle and upper class taxpayers, whose taxable property itself came through the blood and sweat of the poor, including poor Bangladeshis. They are to be evicted to snatch away the land. It is certainly to condemn the slum-dwellers as videshis [foreigners] and vagabonds that the Bangladeshi false allegation has been used. The truth is that not the Bangladeshis but the desi [local] corrupt builders and their protectors are the real threat to India. When American, European and other videshis are welcomed into our country, why not the Bangladeshis?


The hypocrisy and double standards of the government are evident and shameful.


(Source: May 10, 2005 press release by National Alliance of Peoples Movement, C/o Chemical Mazdoor Sabha, 1st floor, A Wing, Haji Habib Bldg, Naigaon Cross Rd, Dadar (E), Mumbai-400014)