Bangladesh says ‘not afraid of barbed wire’ as Bengal govt begins BSF land transfer

Days after securing a sweeping Assembly election victory, the new Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in West Bengal on Monday announced that land required for fencing the India-Bangladesh border would be handed over to the Border Security Force (BSF) within 45 days, prompting a response from Bangladesh over the move and the rhetoric surrounding it.

Chairing the first Cabinet meeting at Nabanna, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari said the transfer process would begin immediately and give the BSF full control over the land needed to complete the fencing work along the international border.

“In our very first Cabinet meeting today, we have taken the decision to transfer the land to the BSF. The process begins today and will be completed within the next 45 days. Once this is accomplished, the BSF will complete the border fencing and the issue of illegal infiltration will be resolved within a short period,” Adhikari told reporters after the meeting.

More from India

Bangladesh responds to border fencing move

The announcement drew a reaction from Bangladesh, where Humaiun Kobir, foreign affairs adviser to Prime Minister Tarique Rahman, said the country would not be pressured by fencing measures.

“People of Bangladesh are not afraid of barbed wire… The government of Bangladesh is also not afraid; where we need to talk, we will talk,” Kobir said.

Targeting Adhikari, he added that election campaigning and governance were different matters. “Bangladesh wants to see whether the Adhikari govt is following election rhetoric in governance,” he said, while also remarking that “Dhaka cannot be intimidated with barbed wire".

Border infiltration remained key poll issue

Illegal infiltration from Bangladesh became one of the central political issues during the West Bengal Assembly election campaign. The BJP repeatedly accused the previous Trinamool Congress (TMC) government of keeping the border vulnerable because of what it described as “politics of appeasement”.

During the campaign, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had promised that if the BJP formed the government, all land needed for border fencing would be transferred to the BSF within 45 days.

West Bengal shares a 4,097-km border with Bangladesh. According to the Union Home Ministry, around 3,240 km has already been fenced, while nearly 850 km remains uncovered, including 175 km categorised as difficult terrain.

BJP and TMC traded charges over delays

The BJP has consistently alleged that the Mamata Banerjee-led government delayed the fencing process by not transferring land on time. The TMC, however, argued that concerns related to local land use and livelihoods needed to be resolved before the work could continue.

At the press conference, Adhikari claimed that under the previous government, only about 8 km of a planned 127-km stretch had been fenced. Although border security operations remained under the BSF during the TMC regime, land acquisition, permissions and local administrative coordination were handled by the state government.

The matter became politically contentious in 2021 after the Centre expanded the BSF’s jurisdiction in Bengal from 15 km to 50 km inside border areas, a move strongly opposed by the then-TMC government, which described it as an attack on federal powers.