Assam: Immigrants

The recent brutal mob violence in Assam took a terrifying shape. Around 50 people were killed while more than 150,000 fled in fear. The aftermath of this violence left hundreds of houses burnt, railway lines blocked and dead bodies scattered all around the vicinity. So much so, that the Indian Army was called out and given shoot at sight orders to stop the clashes. This ethnic discord (between the Bodo people and Bengali-speaking Muslim migrants) reopens the debate over illegal immigration and its deadly consequences.

As a matter of fact, rampant illegal immigration from Bangladesh has been a long-standing issue and despite several protests against it, particularly from the locals, the influx of illegal migrants has not been checked yet. The rapid increments of the Muslim population in the north-eastern region is a clear indicator of the magnitude of such influx. It would be difficult to assess how many of them are residing in India but if the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs' figures are any indication, it would be no less than 20 million. As per Concern Universal, around 50 Bangladeshis enter India illegally every single day. The rise in illegal immigrants invariably pose several socio-economic threats. Moreover, Bangladeshi immigrants also pose a dire threat to India through criminal activity and terrorism. Naturally, it has evoked agitation among the native people in the state. The ethnic riot in Assam is not a recently developed incident but is a result of dissent culminated over a long period of time.

The Indira-Mujib Agreement of 1972 declared all immigrants to have crossed the border before 1971 as non-Bangladeshis. However, this was hugely protested against by the native north-eastern people and the rebel groups.

Consequently, the Illegal Migrant (Determination by Tribunal) Act or IMDT came into force in 1983. It was meant to detect and deport illegal immigrants via tribunal, but the onus to prove that a person was an illegal immigrant was on the litigant along with some of the peculiar conditions attached to it. Ironically, the law itself proved to be the biggest hindrance in achieving this goal and was finally repealed in 2005. In the meanwhile, observing that the IMDT Act was proving to be inadequate, the Assam Accord of 1985 was enacted fixing the cut-off date to determine the illegal immigrants in Assam as March 25, 1971. But it hardly took care of the loopholes in the IMDT Act and as a way out, immigrants started identifying themselves as Bengali-speaking Muslims.

In the preceding 22 years before the abolishment of IMDT Act, the entire demographic picture of the north-east has changed with the Muslim population increasing as much as three folds. The porous border between the two nations has further made deportation almost impossible. Above all, vote bank politics by some of the major political parties continues to encourage illegal immigration. No fruitful result to keep a check on this "invasion into Indian territory" has been brought despite several bilateral talks between the two nations. The governments of both the countries must act promptly towards a viable solution to this problem. We can't let Bangladesh do to India what Mexico is doing to the US.