NEW_DELHI: Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Bharatiya Janata Party president, who will embark upon a rashtriya ekta yatra from December 11 to January 26, will be using a vehicle similar to the one used by L.K.Advani for his rath yatra. However, the slogans will be different.

The march will take him from. Kashmir to Kanyakumari, has been planned in the name of strengthening national unity in the face of growing threat of secessionism. The BJP strategists are hopeful of reviving interest of people in the country’s rich heritage and that the yatra will project the party as the only ‘organization capable of defending the nation’s integrity.

The meetings are being held at regular intervals at the party’s headquarters here to plan the

yatra.

The party strategists have so far decided that there should be intense interaction between Joshi and the people all along the route. For this purpose, they have decided to use a DCM Toyota for the 15,000 km long. Journey that will take Joshi through 15 states a vehicle of similar make was used for ‘Advani’s “rathyaura”.

However, now the vehicle may not be given the shape of chariot. It will be decorated though and is most likely to carry a map of “Akhand Bharata” (United India) including Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh Sri Lanka and Burrma in the backdrop.

Only Narendra Modi, young, B.J.P leader from Gujarat and a ‘member of the party’s national executive will accompany Dr. Joshi.

Forty BSF jawans and officers had stopped all traffic on the bridge at gunpoint on the plea that they were ensuring a safe passage for their director general. Hundreds of pedestrians were immobilized and a massive traffic jam resulted not only in Siliguri town but on all the highways linking Calcutta, ‘Assam, Bihar, Nepal, Bhutan and Sikkim, as the Mahananda Bridge link all major roads in his region. When the additional police superintendent, Kuldip Singh, came to enquire into the matter, the BSF jawans threatened to shoot him too if he violated their order.

Even though the civil admiration has served two notices, the BSF authorities have flatly refused to hand over a naik and two constables who have been charged under various sections with creating panic at the bridge, stopping traffic and threatening police officers on duty. The BSF director general, T.Anantchaci, initially claimed that the Siliguri fracas ‘may have taken place because the police officials were in plain clothes. However when it was pointed out to him that all the policemen at the bridge were in uniform he said he would look in to the matter On the other hand, the BSF’s North Bengal IG, Ranju, Das, denied any knowledge of the incident even though the force at the bridge was constable in touch, ‘with his office through walkie talkies. That nothing will be done against the erring personnel is a foregone conclusion.

Dozens of cases against the BSF relating to assault, intimidation, extortion and even death by beating in BSF camps’ have been lodged by local residents earlier in various police stations in North Bengal, but they are never enquired into by the police and nor do the BSF authorities take any ‘action against the erring personnel.

No action has yet been taken on the allegation by Manjula Saha of Gopalgunj in Malda that BSF jawans had beaten her husband to death for no ostensible reason earlier this year. There have been a series of incidents of BSF personnel assaulting students in Dewangunj and Haldibart areas in Jalpaiguri, again with no obvious reason, and the Jaw enforcers have turned a Blind eye to such repression despite complains. In are cent case, BSF jawans attempts to physically pall down a female passenger from a bus as part of a * searching” operation at Haldibari was thwarted by her irate co-passengers, But such unity among the victims is rare, for everybody fears the repercussions. In fact, the BSF has Jet loose a reign of terror in the border areas and no one appears to be on the side of the victims.

The oft-repeated complaint of the local residents is that there is an unholy nexus between the BSF, the police and smugglers operating in the area, Smugglers have a field day, operating with impunity in the border areas with the security forces and policemen looking the other way and allegedly getting a share of the body for their effort.

However, the Siliguri incident has raised the hope among residents the area that the indignity suffered by senior administrative officials at the hands of the BSF ‘may start a process of overall enquiry into the misdeeds of the BSF in the area,

Article extracted from this publication >> November 15, 1991