Political Diary
New
Delhi, 7 August 2018
‘Business’
Of Illegal Migrants
ITS
TIME TO BELL THE CAT
By
Poonam I Kaushish
In the summer of 1975, hundreds of thousands
of people fled South Vietnam after Saigon’s fall for fear of political
persecution. They escaped in rickety and unseaworthy wooden boats. This was the
largest mass exodus of asylum seekers by sea in modern history. Giving rise to
the term “boat people”. The world embraced them as refugees after a great deal
of drama. The US which created the mess,
led on the people it had walked out on. Canada, Britain, Australia, Thailand,
Malaysia, Japan even tiny Bermuda followed.
Fourteen years later in 1989, the world
changed its mind. The boat people had become an albatross round the neck.
Worse, a new breed of boat people was taking to the seas: economic refugees.
They were farmers, factory workers and labourers looking for a new life in new
safe havens. They had no proof that they faced persecution if they returned.
In 2016, the world woke up to another set of
boat people whereby over 22 million Syrians sought asylum in various parts of the world following six
years of civil war. Of these 13.5 million required humanitarian assistance and
another 5 million wanted refuge in European countries. One year later again the
past repeated itself when 164,000 Rohingyas (Muslims) fled violence in
Myanmar’s northern Rakhine State and sought asylum in India and Bangladesh.
In India history seems to have come a full
circle. Illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who had made Assam their home might
no longer be able to stay put. Thanks to the National Register of Citizens
(NRC) which has sifted through 3.29 crore people who
had applied for recognition as Indian citizens, of these 2.89 crores
made it to the second and final draft of the NRC while the fate of 40 lakhs
hangs in balance.
Kudos to the Government for taking the first
step towards identifying and throwing out illegal migrants, which was a time bomb waiting to explode. Predictably, this has
raised hackles of Opposition leaders with Bangla Chief Minister Mamata
Bannerjee warning of a “bloodbath and civil war”. Forgetting that the genesis of the problem started in 1951when East Pakistan immigrants
settled in Assam due to the 4,096-km-long and porous India-Bangladesh border
which made crossing easy.
Following the All Assam
Students Union (AASU) agitation in 1985 then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi promised identification and deportation of illegal
immigrants under the Assam Accord as it had significantly altered the
region’s demographic complexion, particularly in Assam’s border districts, its
six North-eastern sisters and Bangla with important political implications.
For over three decades the
issue continued to be political fodder and finally in 2015 the Supreme Court
directed the Government to update the NRC in a time-bound manner under the
Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards)
Rules 2003. The process took off only in 2016 under the BJP Government which
intends politically milking the issue and cornering the Congress and
Trinamool’s Chief by accusing them of indulging in minority appeasement.
Paradoxically, even as the ‘secular’ Parties
swear by secularism, competition for the minority vote-bank has consistently
communalised the issue. Most have recklessly imported them to inflate their
vote-banks. Notwithstanding, the ugly reality that illegal migrants have
completely changed Assam’s demographic landscape, threatened livelihood and
identity of indigenous people.
Think. Eight of Assam’s 27 districts have a
Muslim majority population and hold the key for 60 of 126 Assembly constituencies.
Over 57 show more than 20% increase in voters, over 85% of the total encroached
forest land is with Bangladeshis. According to intelligence reports, “In 70
years 1901-1971, Assam’s population rose from 3.29 million to 14.6 million – a
343.77 % increase” over a period when India’s population went up by only about
150%!
This, despite Assam’s fertility rate being 126.5%,
lower than the all-India rate of 137.3%, even as the Muslim growth rate in
areas bordering Bangladesh was over 60% compared to faraway districts where the
growth rate varied between 30-50% (1971-1991). Clearly, this unnatural growth
is a byword for illegal migrants.
In Mizoram the
anti-outsider feelings vents itself in frequent volatile student’s stir. In Nagaland, the
population of Muslims, mostly Bangladeshi illegal migrants has more than
trebled in the past decade – rising from 20,000 in 1991 to over 75,000 in 2001. Tripura is a tragic example of obliteration
of local identity.
Worse, seven
districts of Bihar, Bangla and UP have been affected due to large-scale illegal
migration. The Union Capital has over 12 lakhs and Maharashtra over 100,000
illegal Bangladeshis. In Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh, Bangladeshis have even secured
ration cards. From rag pickers to domestic help, agriculture workers to
rickshaw-pullers all are mostly illegal migrants who take away jobs from
citizens.
India is also home
for over 150,000 Tibetan refugees, 70,000
Afghanis, 100,000 Sri Lankan Tamils and 3.5 million Nepali refugees. With an
ever burgeoning population bursting at the seams this spells disaster. Against
1.3 billion Indians the ratio of illegal migrants is 100 to 2.5 thereby putting
colossal pressure on scarce resources, rising unemployment which is pushing
wages lower.
“Undoubtedly, the influx from Bangladesh is
more than an “aggression” and has “created a fear psychosis, made people’s life
wholly insecure and caused insurgency in alarming proportions,” said a senior
Home Ministry official.
Given the
socio-economic complexities of our politics and society there should be a
debate on their minority rights. As international migration scholar Myron
Weiner says: Population flows across borders “do not merely happen. More often
they are made to happen”. Governments sometimes force immigration “as a means
of achieving cultural homogeneity or for asserting the dominance of one ethnic
community over another”.
In fact,
globally countries are realizing their open door policy to refugees was a grave
mistake. German Chancellor Merkel is now regretting her decision, France is
waking up to Islamisation by 2030, Denmark and Scandanavian countries are
throwing them out. All realize it isn’t merely demographic change and culture
shock but with scarce resources, joblessness is on the rise resulting in
increasing crime. US President Trump is making life hell for immigrants.
Where do we go
from here? Pander to rabid rabble
rousers? To politics of vote banks? Allow the Push and Pull theory of
illegality to continue? The Push back to poverty vs the Pull of India’s rich pastures. The option is narrow. The solution must be
clearly dictated by India’s primary interest: its integrity and stability.
But it’s not
going to be a cake walk as the Opposition wants the Government to take a humane
and holistic view, read vote-bank politics. Bangladeshis will gladly trade
their votes for the right to stay here with the backing of ‘secular’ Parties.
Is the
Government capable of defusing this powder keg?
It may be necessary to launch a series of major offensives to drive home
the message to illegal immigrants. Clearly, the time is far gone to pussy-foot
the issue. The need of the hour is to understand the seriousness of the
problem, deal assertively with the issues and set up time-bound measures. The
NRC has shown him the way. More than talking tough, Modi once and for all needs
to bell the big fat cat of illegal migrants. ----INFA
(Copyright, India News & Feature Alliance)
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