There is hardly any enthusiasm among voters in the enclave settlement camp in Dinhata in West Bengal’s Cooch Behar district. Fifty-eight families of erstwhile Indian enclave dwellers in Bangladesh, who came to India after the swap of enclaves on the border between the two countries, have been staying at this camp since August 2015.
Abu Taher, a resident, is disinterested in the elections. He said that some women from the Trinamool Congress had visited the camp on Wednesday evening and shown the residents their party symbol, but people remained indifferent to them. “We have been here for three years but we have not been given what we were promised. When we left Bangladesh, we thought we would get land and jobs here in India. I used to teach Arabic in Bangladesh. Nobody knows me here; so I am sitting idle,” the 29-year-old said.
After the exchange, in which 51 Bangladeshi enclaves became a part of India and 111 Indian enclaves merged with Bangladesh’s territory, 922 people living in the erstwhile Indian enclaves came to India. They are residing in three settlement camps in Dinhata, Haldibari and Mekhliganj.
Poll plank
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who began her election campaign in West Bengal on April 3, has raised the issue of enclaves, and is demanding votes seeking credit for the historic swap between India and Bangladesh in 2015.
“We gave land for the enclaves (Chitmahal) and took the initiative to solve the problem. No other party cared before us. The Prime Minister had no role in this. It was done entirely by us,” Ms. Banerjee said in two back-to-back rallies in Cooch Behar on April 3 and April 4.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was quick to oppose her claims and insisted that the Prime Minister alone deserved the entire credit for the enclave exchange.
Malati Rava, the Cooch Behar district BJP president, said that it was only on the intervention of PM Modi that the seven-decades-old issue of enclave exchange was sorted out. Ms. Rava referred to the rally of Prime Minister Modi at Jalpaiguri on February 8, where he claimed the credit for the exchange of enclaves. According to the BJP leader, since then, the TMC leadership has started seeking credit for the transfer of the enclaves.
As with the Dinhata settlement camp, the situation at the Haldibari settlement camp, which has 300 voters and falls in the neighbouring Jalpaiguri constituency, looks no different. There is hardly any election campaign material to be seen.
“We had voted for the Assembly polls in 2016, and although we will be voting for the first time in the Parliamentary elections, we are not excited.”
Poor state
“The families here have no jobs and are surviving on doles given out by the State government. This is not easy survival for us; we had come to India with a lot of hope,” said Jayprakash Roy, one of the prominent residents of the Haldibari camp.
However, in the 51 erstwhile Bangladesh enclaves, which became part of India in 2015, there is some political activity. There are about 12,000 voters in these 51 settlements, which are now a part of India.
Joynal Abedin, a prominent activist before the exchange, is now the district secretary of the BJP’s youth wing. A resident of Madhya Masaldanga, the 27-year-old graduate in Political Science is busy organising a small procession to ensure his party gets the maximum number of votes from these 51 settlements.
On the other hand, Saddam Mian, a resident of Potaarkuthi with an M.A. degree and among Joynal’s close friends, is inclined to vote for the TMC, and was busy organising rallies for the party. Despite differing political ideologies, both young men said that there should be employment opportunities for people who have had seven decades of stateless existence. Both Mr. Joynal and Mr. Saddam said, “Roads have been built, electricity lines have been laid, but the most pressing need here is that of jobs for the youth.”
