'Mamata Banerjee, goons from Bangladesh feeling threatened in West Bengal'

Mamata Banerjee has decided to take on the BJP and with each passing day she seems to be getting more confrontational. It is clear that the Burdwan blast was an accident as a result of which all of us got to know what exactly was going on.

Amar Bhushan, who headed the counter espionage department in the Research and Analysis Wing, says when they had done a survey in 1991, they had found that there was a 200 per cent increase in the number of illegal Madrasas along the West Bengal-Bangladesh border.

In this exclusive interview with Oneindia, Bhushan says he cannot believe that the West Bengal government has stooped so low and can't imagine any dealing with Mamata Banerjee.

Your thoughts on the handling of the Burdwan incident?

I cannot imagine that the government has stooped so low when the need of the hour was to be more responsible. I really cannot imagine any one dealing with Mamata Banerjee.

Is this a new issue?

This has been going on for several years and was in fact started by the Congress. This issue has blown out of proportion because of an accident that occurred in Burdwan.

In fact in my next book I have a chapter on this. The CPM cadre in West Bengal got almost 25 per cent of their votes from illegal immigrants for whom over the years they made ration and identification cards.

This was in fact a trend started by the Congress and continued by the CPM. They allowed illegal immigrants to come and settle down in India and in the name of bogus secularism, rehabilitated them.

Now the difference between these goons from Bangladesh and the Indian nationals is that the former are committed voters.

They will vote no matter what and unlike many of us will not think twice before voting. In fact they will reach the ballot box no matter where they are. Basically all these persons are part of the Jamaat sleeper cells.

You were part of the RAW team which conducted a survey on this issue. What did you find?

We found that most of the persons coming into India from Bangladesh were goons and were part of the Jamaat sleeper cells. Their network had grown huge by 1991 itself. We had done a survey in 1991 and realized that there was an increase of illegal Madrasas by 200 per cent along the India-Bangladesh border.

How does Mamata Banerjee come into the picture?

Mamata Banerjee realized that this was a sure shot vote bank of 25 per cent. She also knew that these were committed voters.

All she did was continue to keep quiet and took the CPM's share of votes which always relied heavily on the votes from these illegal immigrants. She was well aware of what was happening.

Such a big operation cannot skip the attention of the state government. It was an open secret that the Jamaat always hid in West Bengal.

Why this confrontation with the BJP and the Centre?

The TMC leaders especially that man who called the Burdwan incident a plant by the BJP is stretching sycophancy to a level that one cannot imagine. How can Derek O'Brien say that the BJP schemed all this? Don't they have any nationalistic streak left in them?

Mamata relies a lot of this chunk of votes which come from the illegal immigrants. She is just scared of losing her base. She is well aware that the BJP does not rely on these votes from illegal immigrants.

The BJP is also fully aware that these people will not vote for them. The BJP is targeting the votes of the local Bengalis and Mamata fears this. What is happening is that Mamata and these goons from Bangladesh are now feeling threatened. They feel if Mamata is out then they lose protection.

On another note sir, how serious is the nuclear threat from Pakistan? A think tank just said they can have 200 nuclear weapons by 2020.

There are two ways of looking at the threat. A nuclear power is always dangerous and now with the Americans leaving Afghanistan soon you will see the Taliban with the help of Pakistan staking a claim for power. This makes the situation vulnerable as the weapons could fall into the wrong hands.

Does this mean they will fire the nukes at India?

It is not that easy. Even the Pakistan military will not allow the firing of the nukes. They are aware that India can retaliate and this will be fatal for them. They will have the fear that in case of a retaliation by India, Pakistan will not exist.