HC stays all deportations

The High Court not only ordered them released and allowed them to go to their respective homes within Bengal under certain conditions, but also restrained the Maharashtra Government from deporting the alleged Bangladesh nationals to Bangladesh or to any other country.

Justice Samresh Banerjee by an interim order also stayed the directive of Deputy Commissioner of Police, Special Branch CID, Mumbai, to deport the alleged Bangladeshis forthwith.

Healso directed West Bengal home secretary to communicate the order to the Maharashtra Government.

The order of Justice Banerjee came after perusing the documents placed before the court and hearing the submissions of counsels.

The police authorities were ordered to permit the petitioners to return to their homes in Howrah on an undertaking by each of them to the police that they would not leave their respective police station areas without leave of the court. They were also directed to report to their respective police stations once a week.

The court ordered that this be communicated to the Bidhanagar Police Station.The order was passed after Government Pleader Subodh Ukil together with Chittaranjan Chatterjee, counsels for the state government stated that the petitioners had not been arrested or any criminal case or proceedings were lying against them either under the citizenship act or any other law.The petitioners were Mansur Mollah, Atibur Mollah, Hafizul Mollah, Samsul Mallick, Kochi Hazra and SheikHaswan Ali who had challenged the July 20 order for their deportation.

These persons had been sent to West Bengal on July 24, along with others from Mumbai for deportation. But the State Government had not done so and lodged them in the Bidhanagar Police Station.

The interim order would be effective till August 17 and the matter would come up for hearing on August 12.

In contrast, Maharashtra8217;s Deputy Chief Minister, making a statement in the State8217;s Legislative Council, was categorical that there had been no miscarriage of justice and said that the Calcutta High Court8217;s order would be dealt with appropriately.

In New Delhi, the Lok Sabha witnessed a furor over the issue, with State political satrap and Leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar decrying the deportations, and Shiv Sena MPs Prakash Paranjape and Madhukar Sarpotdar flaying Pawar for his stand.

It required the intervention of Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana who assured the House that Home Minister L K Advani would make astatement in Parliament tomorrow on the deportations.

Khurana, however, sought to clarify that the Maharashtra Government8217;s decision related to Bangladeshis8217; and not Bangla-bhashis8217; those who speak the Bengali language.

Khurana told mediapersons it was wrong to 8220;give a communal colour8221; to the issue merely because the Bharatiya Janata Party was in power in the State and at the Centre.

The minister said this was not the first time an effort had been made to deport illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. He said that a similar effort had been made in Delhi in 1992 and their names were not included in the voters8217; list for the Assembly elections in 1993.

Nevertheless, the entire non-Congress Opposition staged a walkout in the Lok Sabha amid uproarious scenes, a clear indication that a mere statement is not likely to settle the issue.

Describing the government8217;s response as 8220;typically fascist8221;, CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee led his party members out of the House. Members belonging to the SamajwadiParty, CPI, Muslim League and Janata Dal followed suit.

Tempers ran high throughout the brief debate on the issue during Zero Hour and at one stage slogan-shouting Opposition members stormed into the well of protesting against certain remarks made by Paranjape a Sena MP from Thane.

They returned to their seats only after an assurance by Speaker G M C Balayogi that the member, Prakash Paranjpe, would withdraw the offending remark.

The debate began with leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar accusing the BJP-Shiv Sena government of using the evictions as a cover to eject Muslims from Mumbai. The same party had carried on a violent movement against South Indians in the past, Pawar said, adding such a government should not be allowed to continue in Maharashtra and that the Centre should clarify its stand on the issue.

Chatterjee, narrating the plight of Bengalis in Maharashtra said many of them were chained and forcibly led into trains leaving town. He had evidence that majority of the 40 persons deportedrecently were Indian citizens from the Hooghly district in West Bengal, he said.

Chatterjee said he would not demand the dismissal of the Shiv Sena government. Rather, he added, the people of Maharashtra would 8220;throw them into the Arabian Sea8221;.

Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress also demanded a statement by the Home Minister on the evictions, adding Indian citizens belonging to any part of the country 8220;should not be harassed8221;.

Madhukar Sarpotdar of the Shiv Sena described the charges of deportations as wild allegations, saying they were 8220;intended to malign8221; the government in Maharashtra.

Bahujan Samaj Party leader Mayawati alleged that the BJP8217;s ideology of Hindutva was posing a threat to minorities all over the country.