Of Immigration Laws

Author: Editorial
Publication: The Sentinel
Date: November 25, 2004
URL: http://www.sentinelassam.com/sentinel_en/archives/nov2504/editorial.htm

We had occasion to draw attention to the fact yesterday that no Prime Minister of India other than Dr Manmohan Singh had ever suggested that the IM(DT) Act be applied all over the country. This is not to suggest that the scope for this does not exist. On the contrary, paragraph (2) of Chapter I says that the Act extends to the whole of India, and paragraph (3) says that the Central Government may extend the IM(DT) Act to other States as well through a gazette notification. But let the Union Government even give a hint of wanting to do so, and we can anticipate vehement protests all over the States concerned. As such, it is not too difficult to imagine the "certain technicalities" due to which the IM(DT) Act cannot be made the immigration law for any other Indian State. It will thus remain a festering sore only in the State of Assam, regardless of what Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's "personal views" about the law may be. What we would like to put across as strongly as possible is that neither the Prime Minister nor his advisers seem to have any clear ideas about what the prime objectives of immigration laws are. Had our lawmakers the habit of doing their homework before making laws for the people, the IM(DT) Act would not have come into being in the first place, because it is so downright anti-national.

It is the business of all sensible immigration laws to make illegal immigration into any country as difficult as possible. This is not to suggest that illegal immigration does not take place in the best of countries. The United States has constant illegal infiltration from Mexico and Cuba not to speak of other countries. But the US has not legislated an immigration law that makes this illegal infiltration any easier. In the case of Assam, this is precisely what the IM(DT) Act has done. In all other immigration laws all over the world, the onus of proving nationality is on the illegal migrant. The irony of the IM(DT) Act is that the name of the law gives the false impression that the Government is indeed concerned about illegal migrants, while the law itself actually takes away that universal obligation from the illegal infiltrator. It is equally ironical that the preamble to the IM(DT) Act also should pretend that the Act had to be legislated because many illegal migrants have been trying to pass off as Indian citizens and the existing immigration law was not good enough to take care of this situation! If anything, the IM(DT) Act makes it impossible for Assam to evict any foreigner illegally living in Assam. And taking away the authority of the Executive to detect and deport foreign nationals has made the IM(DT) Act a completely toothless immigration law. If anything, the IM(DT) Act is a sabotage of the immigration law of the country, since it favours the illegal migrant against national and security interests. Even a Congress Prime Minister like Mr Narasimha Rao had admitted in Assam that there were aberrations in the IM(DT) Act that had to be rectified. And this is the immigration law that Dr Manmohan Singh wants for the whole country. In fact, he is the only Prime Minister of India who has defended this black law without a proper study of it. This should be clear from the following words: "The principles underlying the IM(DT) Act are sound. Personally speaking, I would like the Act to be extended all over the country, but I have my limitations and am not in a position to do so." Had he studied the Act carefully, he would have realized like anyone else that it represents a total sabotage of the immigration law of the country. Mercifully, there are still chief ministers of many Indian States who are aware of the sinister implications of the IM(DT) Act, and who will never allow the black law to be extended to their States. None of them are keen to create another Kashmir in their States so that people have to become refugees in their own States, as the Congress leaders of Assam have done - both by getting the IM(DT) Act pushed through in Parliament in 1983 and by refusing to repeal it even though they know that it is anti-national and anti- people. Dr Manmohan Singh also tried to assure the people of Assam that they had everything going well for them, because this was his adopted State. But given his perception of the IM(DT) Act, people are no longer sure that this fact of life is an advantage after all. At the same time they feel that this could not possibly be the perception of a Prime Minister as learned as Dr Manmohan Singh. They are naturally wondering whether his view of the IM(DT) Act is really his "personal view" or someone else's.
 

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