Bangladesh steps up border vigilance over suspected forced crossings from India

 The BJP has prioritised tackling undocumented migration in border states. 

Dhaka says repatriation must follow formal bilateral procedures. 

"We have started miking in border villages to raise awareness among residents and ask them to stay vigilant against any illegal crossings or push-in attempts," Lieutenant Colonel S. M. Shariful Islam, commander of the battalion, told Reuters.

Bangladesh’s border guards have intensified patrols and launched public awareness campaigns along parts of the frontier with India because of concerns India has illegally forced people into Bangladesh, officials said. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which governs the border states of Tripura, Bengal and Assam, has said it would tackle undocumented migration as a priority.

Earlier this month, India's foreign ministry told reporters that India has asked Bangladesh to verify the nationality of more than 2,860 people suspected of being Bangladeshis and of living illegally in the country. India's foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.

The 60th Battalion of Border Guard Bangladesh began campaigns on Sunday in border areas of the Brahmanbaria district, using loud speakers to warn residents and urging them to remain alert to attempts to push people across the border.  

"Our patrols and surveillance have been strengthened across the border areas. Intelligence operations are also continuing to prevent illegal push-ins, human trafficking, and the smuggling of drugs and other goods,” he said.

One of the longest land borders

Bangladesh and India share a border that stretches over more than 4,000 kilometres (2,485 miles), one of the longest land frontiers in the world.

West Bengal alone shares an international land border of approximately 2,216.7 kilometers with Bangladesh, which is the longest boundary any Indian state shares with a neighboring country.

Blogger : Along Bangladesh border, Tripura 

Three sub-districts in Brahmanbaria district in eastern Bangladesh account for around 73 kilometres of the border with Tripura. Assam which shares its border with Bangladesh has, since May 2025, pushed back hundreds of people into Bangladesh out of the 30,000 people tribunals have declared to be foreigners. 

Several human rights groups have said the authorities have arbitrarily thrown people out of the country.

Dhaka has repeatedly said any repatriation must follow formal bilateral procedures and has warned against unilateral push-ins across the border.  

The Meghalaya-Bangladesh border is a 443-km-long international frontier that stretches across southern and southwestern Meghalaya.  

Mizoram shares a 318-kilometer international border with Bangladesh to its west.

"Uniform Civil Code in Assam will guarantee women Right to live with dignity and exercise rights over property," says CM Himanta

Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said the UCC would, for the first time, allow many women from minority communities to exercise their voting rights independently and freely. 

"The Uniform Civil Code will guarantee women the right to live with dignity and exercise their rights over property. It will help prevent child marriage and polygamy," Sarma said.

He described the legislation as a landmark social reform that would usher in a "new life" for minority women.

A day after the Assam government tabled the Uniform Civil Code (UCC) in the state Assembly, the Chief Minister on Tuesday, May 26, mounted a strong defence of the proposed legislation. Replying to the motion of thanks to the Governor's address in the Assembly, Sarma moved quickly to address concerns that the legislation is politically motivated or targeted at minorities.

"We do not want anyone to feel that we ignore minority communities because we receive fewer votes from them. 

The Uniform Civil Code is being brought to secure the rights of women from minority communities," he said.

The Chief Minister laid out the specific objectives driving the proposed law - ensuring women's right to property, curbing child marriage and polygamy, and expanding women's democratic participation.  

"This is a reform for the empowerment of women and I believe people across communities will eventually support it," he added.

The bill, however, has not gone unchallenged, drawing criticism from political parties from as far as Telangana. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) resident and Hyderabad MP Asaduddin Owaisi launched a pointed attack on the legislation, accusing the Assam government of using the UCC as a vehicle to impose Hindu personal law on Muslims.

Owaisi alleged that Hindu principles were being quietly embedded into rules governing succession, inheritance and divorce - areas where Muslim personal law currently applies. He also highlighted what he called a glaring internal contradiction - the bill exempts tribal communities from its purview entirely, while making it binding on Muslims.

"Only Hindu culture is being protected, while Muslims have to comply with these so-called uniform rules. Every community has the right to protect its culture under Article 29, but why is only the tribals' autonomy being protected?" he wrote on social media.

The AIMIM chief went further, arguing that the legislation runs against the original intent of India's founding fathers.

The UCC Bill is expected to be passed in the Assembly with the BJP-led NDA holding a 2/3 majority in the House.  

Uttarakhand and Gujarat are the first two states in post-independent India to pass and implement a Uniform Civil Code (UCC) to establish a unified legal framework for personal laws. Both states follow highly similar frameworks aimed at gender equality, equal inheritance, and mandatory registration for marriages and live-in relationships.  

UCC proposals and legislation in Gujarat and Uttarakhand mandate 

marriage registration, 

equalizes inheritance rights for men and women across religions, 

outlaws bigamy, 

and requires court decrees for divorce. 

It also formalizes the registration process for living relationships and recognizes children and maintenance rights from such unions.Exemptions: Similar to Uttarakhand, the Gujarat code exempts Scheduled Tribes and certain communities whose customary rights are constitutionally protected.  The implementation of UCC has been the third major election promise of the BJP since 1990s. 

The two other being - abrogation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir and setting up of a grand Ram temple at Ayodhya.  

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National Investigation Agency (NIA) arrests 14 more in Malda judicial officers gherao case

National Investigation Agency arrests 14 more in Malda judicial officers gherao case, total count rises to 68

According to investigators, those arrested had direct involvement in the alleged harassment and confinement of judicial officers in Mothabari last month

NIA officials conduct an investigation at Mothabari village in Malda district following the gherao of seven judicial officers by protesting locals over voter list deletions during the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise ahead of the West Bengal Assembly elections, Saturday, April 4, 2026.

The arrests were made during overnight raids on Monday in the Kaliachak and Mothabari areas. With the latest action, the total number of arrests in the case has risen to 68.  

The newly arrested individuals were directly involved in the April 1 incident in Mothabari, where a mob held seven judicial officers hostage inside a BDO office and confined another officer inside a vehicle for nearly nine hours.

The violence erupted during protests over the deletion of names from electoral rolls. Officials said protesters blocked roads, vandalised vehicles and attacked police personnel during the unrest.  

The judicial officers had been deployed for the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter lists and were later rescued by security forces late at night. The incident sparked a major political controversy in the state ahead of the assembly polls. "The NIA is trying to identify others linked to the incident. Several crucial leads have emerged during questioning of those earlier arrested and scrutiny of CCTV footage, leading to a series of arrests over the past few weeks," a senior official said.

The NIA took over the probe following directions from the Supreme Court. Among those arrested earlier in the case are ISF’s Mothabari candidate Maulana Shahjahan Ali Qadri and ISF leader Golam Rabbani.  

Liquor shops will not be permitted within one kilometre of schools, colleges, temples: Bengal CM Suvendu Adhikari

Government to issue forms from May 27 for Annapurna Yojana, under which Rs 3,000 per month will be given to women, says Suvendu. 

The chief minister also said his government has decided to introduce fish and rice meals at around 400 dedicated canteens twice a week at a subsidised rate of Rs 5.

He said the West Bengal government will also set up an AYUSH department, delinking it from the health department.  

He said the state government will start issuing forms from May 27 for the Annapurna Yojana, under which Rs 3,000 per month would be given to women.

Speaking to reporters after an administrative meeting at Kalyani in Nadia, Adhikari said, “Annapurna Yojana forms will be issued from the state secretariat from tomorrow. All Indians are eligible to receive benefits under the scheme.”

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India flags Terror menace in Quad Foreign Ministers meeting ::: Hinting at Pakistan, Dr Jaishankar says - "nations subject to terrorist attacks have the right to defend themselves"

Must stand together against terror, Dr Jaishankar to Quad counterparts after meeting  

The External Affairs Minister hosted his counterparts from the US, Japan and Australia in New Delhi for the crucial Quad Foreign Ministers’ Meeting when US President Donald Trump seemingly appears desperate to 'mend' ties with the Indian government under PM Narendra Modi.

"As democratic nations, we also devoted attention to countering the common threat of terrorism. 

There must be zero tolerance for terrorism, and nations subject to terrorist attacks have the right to defend themselves," he said. 

This was precisely the basis of India's highly successful Operation Sindoor in May 2025.  

Convened under India’s chairmanship, the meeting brings together US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi to review regional security challenges and expand cooperation across critical sectors. 

Building on discussions held in Washington in July 2025, the four nations are expected to assess the evolving Indo-Pacific security architecture, take stock of ongoing Quad initiatives and deepen collaboration in areas such as maritime security, emerging technologies, connectivity, disaster response and economic resilience.  

At the Quad Foreign Ministers meeting, Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi said the grouping has completed 10 years and the latest meeting sent a strong and unwavering message of commitment to advancing its shared vision.

He said the ministers also discussed major regional security issues, including the de-nuclearisation of North Korea, and expressed appreciation for the support received from partner countries. 

Motegi further noted deliberations on the situation in West Asia, highlighting concerns over disruptions linked to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran. 

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong announced what she described as the strongest ever commitment to the Quad, underscoring an expanded focus on maritime security and regional cooperation.  

"We've just concluded a very substantive and productive meeting of the Quad foreign ministers. 

Much of the discussions and indeed the bilateral exchanges were devoted to the current state of the world. Being Quad, we naturally focused on issues of particular relevance to the Indo-Pacific," Dr Jaishankar said.

"Because we are four maritime democracies located at different ends of the Indo-Pacific, the exchange of perspectives was an exercise of considerable value," he said at a post-meeting joint press conference.  

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio thanked External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and the government for hosting the high-level engagement, noting that the visit follows recent bilateral discussions as well as the multilateral meeting.

Simplifying the purpose of the grouping, Rubio said the Quad is moving beyond being a platform for discussions to one focused on delivering concrete action. He said the goal over the past year has been to operationalise cooperation and turn shared concerns into coordinated responses.

He added that the relevance of the Quad's agenda has only increased amid recent global developments, and expressed confidence that further progress would be made in strengthening practical cooperation. 

The Quad brings together four strategic partners with complementary capabilities that can be deployed to address major global challenges, he said.

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Bidrohi rono klanto !! -- Rebel tired of Wars :::: With his “Bidrohi” (“The Rebel”); Kazi Nazrul Islam had launched entirely new mode of poetic expression

 During our times; no Bengali child would grow without listening and reciting in schools and Rama Krishna Missions and other cultural hubs the famous line --- 

"Ami shei din hobo shanto,
Jobe Utpeerit-er krondon-rol akash-e batash-e dhonibey na,

(I shall rest in peace only when

the anguished cry of the oppressed

shall no longer reverberate in the sky and the air.)  The lines are from the poem Bidrohi by Kazi Nazrul Islam, the national poet of Bangladesh. 

A young Nazrul in front of the Dalmadal Cannon in Bishnupur, Bankura

Born - May 24, 1899 – he expired on August 29, 1976. He was a Revolutionary Bengali poet, a celebrated writer for children and a fantastic lyricist and musician. He also wrote and gave music to songs dedicated to Goddess Kali - hailed in Bengali culture as Shyama Sangeet. 

Nazrul was a champion of religious harmony. 

In one poem he wrote: "Ek hi brinte dooti kusum ... Hindu Musalman (meaning Hindus and Muslims are attached to each other in a single bud). 

He seamlessly composed both profound Islamic ghazals and devotional Hindu Shyama Sangeet.

A Polymath of the Arts: He wasn't just a poet. He was an actor, soldier, journalist, film-maker, and a pioneering musician who introduced the ghazal to Bengal. 

He created nearly 4,000 songs, collectively known as Nazrul Geeti.

Through his works like Samyabadi (The Proletariat/The Communist), he raised  voice fiercely against the exploitation of the poor and championed women's rights.

Nazrul seemed almost instinctively to take to heart—despite having had no familiarity with it in his own time—Karl Marx’s injunction, relatively recently discovered: 

“[…] rub your conceptual blocs together in such a way that they catch fire!” 

“Bidrohi” is a poem animated by the fierce dance of the dialectic—a poem at once of negation and affirmation—and thus a momentous, unparalleled gift to the Bangla language.  

"So formidable was his anti-colonial spirit that it continued to shape and inspire the people of erstwhile East Pakistan, today’s Bangladesh, in its nationalistic struggles against West Pakistani quasi-colonial rule throughout the 1950s and 1960s, culminating in the armed Liberation War and ultimate victory following a nine-month-long bloody war in December 1971," writes Ahmed Ahsanuzzaman in Dhaka-based 'Daily Star' newspaper.  

Nazrul insistence that peace under an oppressive regime is itself a form of violence, a “violence of peace” that the colonised must reject through awakening, defiance, and ultimately, revolt. 

There is a philosophical element in these. 

Violence - hence - need not be incidental but 'essential' to the process of decolonisation or fighting oppression. Nazrul perhaps emphasised the political as well as psychological impact of Violence.

For French psychiatrist and political philosopher Franrz Fanon too, revolutionary violence was inevitable, purging, and transformative as it destroyed the colonial system and united the oppressed.  

Fanon 

In the book 'Black Skin, White Masks'; Fanon had described the unfair treatment of black people in France and how they were disapproved of by white people. 

Frantz argued that racism and dehumanization directed toward black people caused feelings of inferiority among black people. This dehumanization prevented black people from fully assimilating into white society and, further, into full personhood. This caused psychological strife. 

Indians and the Bengali population under British faced the same predicament and challenges.   

For Bengalis and those Indians who followed Nazrul; he was/is not only a poet; he exists in constant form—as voice and a force. 

Get the gravity of the statement --- “Bolo bir— 

bolo unnoto momo shir!” (Speak, O hero — lift my head high!)  

Take few more examples: Shrishthi Shukher ullhashey (Triumphant over nature's creation). 

*** And some more :: --- Rose does no longer bloom in rain. 

Old enjoying the warmth of youth's funeral pyre ---

- Cannot tolerate embrace or kiss of Death. 

A century of possibilities of imposibles

Well, Science may be regularity and order .... but Poetry is chance and arbitrariness !!

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“We should understand the context of these 3 Fs: Fuel, Fertiliser, and Foreign exchange. We need to understand CHALLENGES are more "external driven"

“We should please understand the context of these three Fs: fuel, fertiliser, and foreign exchange. And the foreign exchange is for, in this context, purchase of gold. So, we need to understand this and we also should appreciate that the challenges are more external driven," said Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.

The Minister was addressing the 37th Foundation Day event of the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI), in Mumbai.  

She also said "All the good that is being done by the common people themselves, that is forgotten. And a pessimistic, cynical narrative is generated, which is just not right.

"We should appreciate that the challenges are more externally driven. We must also recognise that India's domestic economic situation remains positive and resilient even today.   

Importantly, such statements have come from the FM days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called for austerity measures.

A few chief ministers have reportedly travelled on motorcycles, metros and electric cars. How far ca he tokenism go?

After returning from his five-country visit, PM held a long meeting with his ministers and asked them to carry out reforms that can save resources, especially energy, narrow down the twin deficits of trade and current account.

What is vital now is restoring confidence in India’s growth story. 

An article in 'Indian Express' says - "The technical blueprint of economic reforms is not difficult to prepare, but what is required is the political will to undertake such reforms. 

The culture of distributing freebies, at the central as well as the state level, is now deeply entrenched. That’s the biggest hurdle in carrying out structural reforms."

Challenges and crises cannot be denied. India will find it difficult to clock 6 per cent GDP growth and contain Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation below 6 per cent. 
If the Strait of Hormuz remains closed for another three months, GDP growth will fall below 6 per cent, and CPI inflation will shoot above 6 per cent. 

"The only rational way to avoid this is to carry out major reforms, similar to those in 1991," says the article.

Modi is not against reform. He tried agri reforms but withdrew as had to give more importance to elections of 2022 in Uttar Pradesh. Again the economic challenges have arrived and the timing coincides with ensuing elections in next 10 months in Yogi Adityanath-ruled UP.  

"India cannot afford fearmongering. We need to give confidence to the people with our words and with our actions," says Nirmala Sitharaman and must be already working on reform strategies.

She also said that India's policy response has been calibrated to preserve domestic growth. The cut in diesel and petrol excise duties would lead to a revenue impact of Rs 1 lakh crore.

Apart from rising crude prices, fertiliser prices have hit "unimaginable" levels, the FM said, adding that high gold prices are creating "some challenges" on the external front.

 

.

Manmohan Singh in office as FM : Rao had given him the green signal 

Taking on critics of the Indian economy amid the ongoing West Asia crisis, the Finance Minister said that Prime Minister's appeals to conserve foreign exchange must be understood in the right context. She added that naysayers were creating a “cynical narrative” about the Indian economy. Not only is this wrong, she said, but also “fear-mongering” and “India cannot afford fear-mongering”.

The government has announced a host of measures to stem the rupee’s fall. 

Plagued by continued foreign fund outflows from the domestic financial markets – Foreign Portfolio Investors have dumped Indian bonds and stocks worth $24.4 billion since the war began in late February – and weak net Foreign Direct Investment inflows. 

As on May 15, the reserves were down around $40 billion compared to pre-war levels. Further, the RBI’s gross forex sales of $29.6 billion in March was the highest in 13 months and occurred even as net FDI during the month was in positive territory for the second month running. 

One argument is the fertiliser subsidy bill, budgeted at Rs 1.71 lakh crore for FY27, is almost certain to exceed Rs 2.25 lakh crore.

The ultimate solution — the real brahmastra — lies in reforming the entire chemical fertiliser subsidy regime by moving towards a direct benefit transfer system on a per-acre basis, integrated with the PM-Kisan scheme. 

Concerns relating to tenant farmers can be addressed by triangulating different data sets, provided the government gives this reform the same priority it once accorded the Jan Dhan-Aadhaar-mobile linkage initiative.

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Guest Column - M Chuba Ao ::::: PM Modi is pragmatic : No economic Emergency

 ‘Gather the pieces that are left over. Let nothing be wasted.’

These days everyone is talking about austerity measures. Maybe it started with Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s appeal. Shri Modi made requests of citizens: to stop buying gold, cut down on cooking oil, avoid imported goods and trips abroad, use less fertiliser and work from home and avoid excessive fuel burning and use public transport.

Technically, these are not austerity measures. These are simple but crucial appeals from a leader who wants to lead the nation from the front. Some of it are wasteful expenditures.

Such appeals could have come only from a sincere Prime Minister. In my view, as citizens in our seventies – some of us could have made such an appeal. In Nagaland, any village elder could have issued that appeal. In other words, these are not restrictions or anything compulsory.

People queue up to buy liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) cylinders at a gas agency office in Noida (social media) 

Implementing these appeals is only in the larger interests of the nation. It was all a pragmatic thing to do.

Our respected Shri Modi ji wants people to do what is in the larger interest of the nation. Hence, the panic button of a crisis is uncalled for. But at the same time we cannot look the other way when the world is confronted with a war, especially in a region that supplies oil across the globe.  

In the given circumstances, we all should be worried about the impending challenges that may greet us in months and years to come. As a nation, the Indian economy has done well no doubt. But we also know that the Indian economy is often a complex system.

Its operation depends on good monsoon rains and also that the oil prices are in check. So just to prepare well for a future crisis is a wise thing to do and the Prime Minister has rightly asked the nation to understand the gravity of the situation.

Car pooling and work from home are in other words good for the nation because in big cities, traffic congestion and pollution are major challenges.

Now, look at the other side of the coin. The US-Iran war and the resulting closure of the Strait of Hormuz have led to the Indian crude oil inventories experiencing a declining journey by an estimated 15 per cent.

Still the central government under the Prime Minister has handled things well. India is one of the few countries in the South East Asia that has not increased the prices of petrol and diesel for domestic consumers or rationed supplies.

The Oil Marketing Companies are today buying crude, gas and LPG at higher cost, but in order to protect consumers, they have been selling the final products at lower cost leading to massive mounting losses of up to Rs 1,000 crore per day. Can we imagine the scale of it? 

In his appeal, the Prime Minister has also linked the global crisis to India’s agricultural imports, saying the country spends heavily on fertilisers sourced from overseas.

“Another sector that consumes foreign currency is our agriculture. We import chemical fertilisers in large quantities from abroad,” he said. 

Let us try to appreciate the fact that the Prime Minister’s appeal to reduce

fertiliser use assumes greater importance because the government’s fertiliser subsidy bill reached a staggering Rs 6.77 lakh crore between 2022 and 2026. 

This was driven by a pricing structure under which urea is sold to farmers at Rs 242 per 45 kg bag while its actual cost is approximately Rs 2,200. Finally, the positive impact of Shri Modi ji’s suggestions is likely to lessen the central government’s economic burden by plugging the outflow of foreign exchange.

The Prime Minister’s seven-point “appeal charter” should be viewed as sincere attempt to prepare citizens for a prolonged period of geopolitical uncertainty. It’s a practical step.

The economic challenges that we face the shocks likely to come will demand long-term structural reforms and we should be prepared for that as well.

(The author is BJP national vice president. Views are personal)

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