Joginder Singh
Illegal immigration from Pakistan and
Bangladesh poses a serious threat to our internal security. Thanks to
vote-bank politics, our politicians are indifferent.
Our
international border is around 15,318 km long, of which our boundary
with Bangladesh is 4,000 km long, running along West Bengal, Assam,
Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura. It is the Government of India’s
responsibility to guard the country’s international border and prevent
foreigners from entering our territory illegally as well as control the
entry of those travelling with valid documents. This is a responsibility
that the Government has clearly failed to fulfil as was evident from a
statement by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Home Affairs: “As
per information available, 1,283 Pakistani nationals (who presumably
entered India legally) remain untraced/missing as of June 30, 2011.”
A
month earlier, while replying to a query under the RTI Act in July, the
Government had said: “It is not possible to estimate the total number
of such foreign nationals, including Pakistani and Bangladeshi
nationals, who have entered into the country without valid travel
documents and are staying in the country since entry of such foreign
nationals into the country is clandestine and surreptitious.” The
response also added that over 73,000 people from various countries have
stayed on even after their visas expired; nearly 50 per cent of these
people were from Bangladesh and about 10 per cent were from Pakistan,
according to data available as of December 31, 2009. In 1996, the then
Union Minister for Home Affairs, Indrajit Gupta, had informed Parliament
that over 25 million Bangladeshis were illegally living in India.
The
fact remains that despite the threat of cross-border terrorism faced by
the country from illegal immigrants, the Ministry of Affairs does not
maintain a centralised source of information on people crossing the
border to enter India from Pakistan and Bangladesh without valid
documents. Except where it suits its own concerns, the Union Government
refuses to act even in the face of judicial pronouncement. The Supreme
Court held in 2005 that provisions of the Illegal Migrants
(Determination by Tribunals) Act of 1983 were ultra vires to the
Constitution and were accordingly struck down. The Illegal Migrants
(Determination by Tribunals) Rules, 1984, were also determined to be ultra vires and hence were struck down.
The
issue of illegal immigration has and continues to figure in high-level
meetings related to internal security. It has figured prominently at the
Chief Ministers’ Conference on Internal Security and Law and Order held
in New Delhi . At this conference serious differences emerged among the
north-eastern States on the issue of illegal immigration — some States
openly accused Assam of contributing to the mounting problem of illegal
immigration in the region.
The then Chief Minister of Nagaland
virtually charged Assam with not taking any steps to check illegal
immigration from Bangladesh. He said, “Assam has almost become a
breeding ground for illegal immigrants as they are procuring documents
like ration cards in that State and then coming to the hills. This is
very dangerous.” He also claimed that such immigrants were being settled
in areas that were under dispute between Assam and several other
States. He even urged Assam to settle its decades-long boundary disputes
with Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland and Manipur in an
accommodative spirit as it was the largest State in the region.
According
to a former Governor of Assam, “57 of Assam’s 126 constituencies were
found to have more than a 20 per cent increase in the number of voters
between 1994 and 1997, whereas the all-India average was just 7.4 per
cent.” This dramatic increase indicated the addition of a large number
of voters who were really illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. He added
that a revision of electoral rolls in Mongoldoi parliamentary
constituency in Assam in 1979 detected the names of thousands of
Bangladeshi nationals and the entire population of Assam revolted
against this development.
The former Governor also felt that
without knowing the long-term effects of the issue, Indian Muslims by
and large were sympathetic to Bangladeshi immigrants. Thus, the illegal
immigrants now have a much larger say in the political affairs of the
country. For instance, when the Government of Maharashtra tried to
deport a few hundred illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, several parties
started a chorus of protests that were politically motivated.
There
is a direct relationship between the voting patterns of illegal
immigrants and the freebies given by political parties to win their
votes in elections. This unholy nexus creates roadblocks at different
levels, especially when it comes to checking the continued problem of
illegal immigration which also gives rise to the possibility that such
elements could possibly become sleeper cells of terrorist organisations
and help them launch terror attacks within India.
The truth is
that even though all politicians realise the enormity of this problem,
their craving for electoral gains and desperation to secure the votes of
illegal immigrants make them ignore the imminent dangers of the
problem. Politics in our country has become hostage to political
expediency which is often disguised as ‘principles’. These ‘principles’
are frequently tailored to suit the occasion.
The trouble is
that politicians world over are essentially the same. Most will say
anything to get themselves elected to office. Later, they hope that they
can escape scrutiny on account of the fact that the people have a short
memory and tend to forget pre-election promises. Thus, all of us who
participate in the electoral process (as well as those who don’t come
out to vote on polling day) are responsible for the rise of bad
politicians to power. The time has come to tell people who don’t vote
that they can’t complain about the quality of politicians who are
elected to office.
A senior politician who has served as the
Speaker of the Lok Sabha once pleaded for identity cards to be given to
all people in the North-East, including illegal immigrants from
Bangladesh living in Assam. A former Governor of Arunachal Pradesh and
West Bengal holds that at least five million Bangladeshis who entered
India illegally have settled in Assam. They constitute a fourth of the
State’s population of 22 million people. According to estimates prepared
by the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Intelligence Bureau, Assam’s
alien population from Bangladesh stands at about four million.
These
statistical details not only indicate the magnitude of the problem of
illegal immigration but also reflect the enormity of the security threat
that the country is facing on account of this. This is apart from the
fact that illegal immigration deprives Indian citizens of employment
opportunities. All countries, including Western nations, especially the
US, ensure and protect their citizens’ job opportunities and, unlike our
Government, are not apologetic about doing so .
Machiavelli,
Hobbes and others have defined man as a lump of matter whose most
politically relevant attribute is a form of energy called
“self-interestedness.” In this context, it means that the issue is
simply not one of changing religious demographics or illegal
immigration; it is not about being remorseful or repentant for taking a
stand wherein we do not protect our own self-interests. As the former
Australian Prime Minister, Mr Gough Whitlam, once said: “The punters
know that the horse named Morality rarely gets past the winning post,
whereas the horse named Self-Interest always runs a good race.” The
Government should know one horse from another!