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Amending Foreigners’ Act:APPEASEMENT RISKS NATIONAL SECURITY, by Insaf, 15 February 2006 Print E-mail

ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 15 February 2006 

Amending Foreigners’ Act

APPEASEMENT RISKS NATIONAL SECURITY

Insaf

National interest is being trampled on by the UPA Government at the Centre in its desperate bid to return to power in Assam. This is clearly reflected in the reckless dilution of the Foreigners’ Act of 1946, enacted to protect India from depredations by foreign nationals.  The legislation is now being amended, as per the Union Cabinet’s decision last week, clearly compromising with national security.  The Government has been working on the move since July last when the Supreme Court struck down the controversial. Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act.  This Act had  failed to control the illegal influx of Bangladeshi Muslims into Assam by putting the onus of proof of a person’s foreign identity on the complainant.  The situation would predictably remain the same once the Foreigners Act is amended.

The amended Foreigners’ Act, designed to appease the Muslims for electoral gains, amounts to a “backdoor” move to get past the Supreme Court order.  It provides for a “fair hearing” by Tribunals set up by the Government before persons are declared  foreigners.  In fact, Sonia Gandhi, who kick-started the Congress campaign at a rally in Jorhat over the week-end, virtually admitted that the amendments to the Act were aimed at wooing lakhs of Muslim migrant voters in Assam.  Recently, 13 hardline Muslim organizations in the State formed a political platform to take on the Congress in the Assembly poll in April-May.

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Alarming Situation

Steady influx of Bangladeshis continues to be a major political issue.  About eight years ago the, then, Governor of Assam, Lt-Gen (Retd.) S.K. Sinha had, in a special report to the President of India, stated that there was a 77.42 per cent rise in the Muslim population in Assam over the past 20 years and that 57 of the 126 Assembly constituencies in the State had shown more than 20 per cent increase in the number of voters between 1994 and 1997.  Dhubri, Gopalpara, Barbeta and Hailakandi had become Muslim-majority districts. The latest estimate is that Muslims in Assam account for 30 per cent votes and hold the key in 35 of the 126 Assembly constituencies. The appeasement of Muslims would, indeed, help the Congress to retain power in Assam.  But the amendment of the Foreigners’ Act undermines national security.

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Terror From Nepal

National security is already threatened from the North, reflected in a recent report by the Sashastra Seema Bal (SSB), a Central para-military force guarding Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders.  It has disclosed mushrooming madrasas in some Nepal districts bordering India.  These have become a hotbed of Islamic fundamentalism  and are helping to push militants and weapons into India.  At least 73 madrasas along the border in India are reportedly providing the militants and the agents of the ISI of Pakistan shelter and financial assistance. These are proliferating in three border districts of Bihar and two of U.P.  More concernedly, the SSB has given a detailed account of how the madrasas in India are being used by the ISI in close coordination with the Pakistan Embassy in Kathmandu. 

The madrasas and mosque-cum-madrasas, on the Indian side of the border numbering 810 and 383 respectively are allegedly getting financial assistance through the Islamic Development Bank, Jeddah, and the Habib Bank of Pakistan.  The funds are being used as the militants’ bases to accumulate arms and ammunition and provide training to the terrorists. Add to this the daily deteriorating Naxalite menace in as many as 13 States of India, from north to south. The outfit is said to have links with the Maoists of Nepal. The SSB report gives credence to this theory.  The latest is the Naxalites’ first-ever attack on a public sector unit, killing eight Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel and injuring nine others at the NMDC’s depot in Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh.  Three days earlier, they had killed 12 security personnel in the same district.

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Pre-Poll Scene In Kerala

Kerala, another poll-bound State in the next two-three months, is poised to provide a different political scenario.  Unlike in the past when the main players used to be the Left-led LDF and the Congress-led UDF, this time four-corner contests are in the offing. The CPM Politburo has rejected the proposal for an alliance with K. Karunakaran, former Chief Minister and a Congress veteran who has since formed a new party, Democratic Indira Congress (DIC).  Karunakaran’s DIC which helped the LDF win the local body elections recently, could now become a key player in the political space outside the two fronts. The party is unlikely to ally with the BJP which is planning to fight the upcoming Assembly poll on it own.  Right from the beginning, the LDF was sharply divided over the Karunakaran party’s alliance with it.

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Re-Building Bihar

Bihar’s new Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has now a strong supporter in the Planning Commission and its Deputy Chairman, Montek Singh Ahluwalia. While finalizing the State’s annual plan with Nitish Kumar last week, Ahluwalia stressed the need to urgently re-build Bihar and extricate the State from its development freefall.  A supportive panel thus approved a plan of Rs.8,250 crore for 2006-07, as against Rs.5,400 crore for the current fiscal. Later, Ahluwalia told the media that funds would flow into Bihar districts in a big way through programmes like the Rural Employment Scheme, Backward Region Grant Fund and Bharat Nirman.  He favoured a convergence of different schemes.  Nitish Kumar promptly responded:  “I can go all whole hog.”

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Dim View Of Maharashtra’s Progress

Maharashtra has been given a bad chit by the Planning Commission.  It has taken a dim view of the State’s performance during the last four years.  It observed while finalizing the annual plan for the coming financial year that Maharashtra, historically a favourite of the investors, has slipped on Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) and the industrialization fronts. Montek Singh Ahluwalia told Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh that Gujarat had taken an edge in FDI and that even Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu were only marginally behind. The Commission also showed concern about the regional imbalance. The Deputy Chairman reportedly remarked that Vidarbha and Marathwada looked poor relatives at a wedding. The Commission has stressed that the imbalance was at the root of demands for Statehood, like the one in Vidarbha.

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Punjab Bonanza To State Staff

With more than a year to go for the next Assembly poll, Punjab’s Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of the Congress has started offering sops to the people.  Like his counterpart in Kerala, Singh too has announced appointment of the Fifth Pay Commission to revise the pay and allowances of the State employees. Addressing a massive rally of 55 different Unions, the Chief Minister also announced a package for the employees which will include merger of 50 per cent of the DA with the basic salary.  He has also announced restoration of the pension scheme for teachers in Government-aided schools.  New recruitment has also been announced for 12,000 teachers, 3,000 police personnel, 1374 doctors, 450 Patwaris and 1300 veterinary doctors.

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Communal Clashes In Ladakh

The scenic city of Leh in the upper reaches of Kashmir, known for its communal harmony over three centuries, is tense today for alleged tearing of the Quran by some miscreants.  The holy book is now in the Centre of a row between the two principal communities of Ladakh – Buddhists and Shia Muslims.  On February 5, some Shia Muslims who are in a minority in the Leh district but in a majority in adjoining Kargil, claimed that some Buddhists had torn a copy of the Quran at a village mosque. A widespread agitation flared up throughout Ladakh and led to communal clashes. The situation was soon controlled, thanks to timely intervention of Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad who rushed the high-level teams of police and army officers to control the situation and enquire into the issue.  No untoward incidence has been reported since. ---INFA.

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

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