Men who guard a country’s border have a tough job. How they do their job is important for the country’s image and also for its relations with neighbours. The jawans of the Border Security Force who stripped and beat up a Bangladeshi citizen in public in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district brought disgrace upon themselves and the organization. Their inhuman action would do nothing to help India’s relations with Bangladesh. If the man had been involved in any illegal activity, he should have been punished in accordance with the law. But what the jawans did exposed their contempt for the legal process. There is enough evidence to suggest that this is no isolated incident. True, illegal immigration into India from Bangladesh is a problem that has long plagued relations between the two countries. Large sections of the people living on both sides of the border are so desperately poor that smuggling and other illegal activities are part of ordinary life in those areas. The challenge for the border protection forces in both countries is made more difficult by the fact that the ordinary laws of the land often do not work in those remote areas. But none of these is an excuse for BSF jawans to indulge in brutalities.

Unfortunately, a section of the BSF seems to be unmoved by repeated condemnations of its high-handedness. The humiliation of the Bangladeshi national brings to mind another tragedy on the eastern border last year. A 15-year-old Bangladeshi girl was shot dead by jawans of the BSF when her clothes got stuck on the barbed wire fence on the border which she was trying to cross along with her father. The horror of the girl’s body hanging from the fence for hours before it was removed shocked the world. It shamed the BSF and resulted in a minor diplomatic row between New Delhi and Dhaka. While a few cases stir leaders of the two countries to act, nothing much changes. The BSF has suspended eight jawans allegedly involved in the stripping of the Bangladeshi citizen. What is more important, though, is a review of the force’s ground-level operations. The leaders of the two countries may outline strategies for better management of the border. But it is for the men on the spot to translate these strategies into action. They cannot afford to act as if they are a law unto themselves.