Homeland Security





India’s perilous borders make the home insecure



By Pravin Sawhney and Ghazala Wahab

It is a journey she has been making annually for the last three years without fear or trouble. After working as a domestic help for 11 months in Delhi she goes on a month-long break to the mountains in north Nepal. In her bag, she carries small gifts for her parents and nearly Rs 20,000 in Indian currency. Her oldest brother was first to cross the non-existent border between India and Nepal, to enter the Siliguri corridor in north Bengal nearly seven years back. He had to do it because the Maoists had come on a recruitment drive to their village. He was particularly vulnerable because one of his cousins had joined the Royal Nepal Army while a few others were in India. So, he took the bus. Over the years, his younger brothers followed suit and finally the sister. From Siliguri, the siblings fanned out to various parts of India, with one landing in far away Kerala. None understands borders and don’t even realise when one is crossed, except that at some point the bus veers towards a narrow mud road for some time before hitting the metal road again. Only sometimes are the bags checked for ‘bad stuff’, otherwise it is a smooth drive. Just as it is for several others, economic migrants, smugglers, farmers and these days even terrorists, who frequently traipse across totally disregarding India’s international borders.

Of the 15,318km of the total land border that India shares with six countries — 3,223km with Pakistan, 4,095km with Bangladesh, 1,751km with Nepal, 1,643km with Myanmar and 699km with Bhutan — porosity is something which the Indian State has come to accept as a grim reality. In addition to the borders, which are clearly delineated and demarcated, India also shares a 4,056km long military-held Line of Actual Control (LAC) with China and 742km long military-held Line of Control (LC) and the 76km Actual Ground Position Line (AGPL) with Pakistan. With Bangladesh, a mere 6.5km of the border remains undemarcated and still causes much tension between the Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Rifles (BR) from time to time.

Traditionally, porous international borders, while being a nuisance, were not a cause for great alarm till terrorism (nurtured by Pakistan) gripped Punjab. Yet, despite the Punjab experience, it was not till the beginning of this decade, in the aftermath of the Kargil was of 1999, that the government awoke to the concept of border management. The Group of Ministers which reviewed national security formed a task force on border management, which submitted its report in February 2001, suggesting several steps to enhance security and reduce violations. Chief among the recommendations of the task force which were accepted and implemented by the government was deputing one force for one border. Hence, BSF was assigned the Pakistan border, and since Bangladesh used to be a part of Pakistan once, it also fell in BSF’s charter of responsibilities. The border with China, which in its entirety is now LAC and not a border any longer, was made the responsibility of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police, the border with Myanmar was handed over to Assam Rifles and for Nepal, erstwhile Special Services Bureau (SSB) was reinvented and rechristened as Sashashtra Seema Bal. The borders with Pakistan and Bangladesh have been completely fenced except for certain pockets which remain as India and Bangladesh have not been able to agree on where the fence should run. While the border fencing has considerably reduced infiltration, as a senior army official says, ‘no obstacle is insurmountable,’ hence transgressions continue.

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