Author: Bibhuti Bhusan Nandy
Publication: The Hindustan Times
Date: February 14, 2003
Decades of uncontrolled illegal
immigration from Bangladesh acquired the proportions of a demographic invasion
years ago.
Thanks to bureaucratic ineptitude
and the lack of political will, successive governments slept over the problem.
The presence of 15-20 million aliens - besides signalling a total breakdown
of border management and immigration control - has imposed a crushing socio-economic
burden on the country and is posing a serious threat to India's national
security.
By its cynical and insistent denial
of the very existence of illegal immigration, Dhaka has reiterated its
non-cooperation in dealing with the problem, adding a sinister dimension
to the not-too-happy-at-all India-Bangladesh relations. Migration occurs
when the right conditions of life in a country become endangered for some
reason or the other. In Bangladesh, unrelenting persecution of the religious
and ethnic minorities and pauperisation of the landless rural masses are
powerful 'push factors' that force people out of their homeland.
At the other end of the spectrum,
'pull factors' like job opportunities, access to public distribution system,
social security benefits, free education, easy acquisition of immovable
property, enlistment as voters and, above all, a congenial socio-cultural
atmosphere attract Bangladeshi migrants to India. The high stakes of some
political parties in captive immigrant vote banks, unbridled corruption
in the BSF, and organised rackets on both sides of the border promote cross-border
infiltration on a massive scale.
Dhaka's facile disclaimer of the
problem is easily trashed. An incisive analysis of 1991 census statistics
by Sarifa Begum, a Bangladesh demographer, showed that the estimated 104.7
million population of Bangladesh had excluded 9-10 million from the computation.
Additionally, the census figure was at odds with the Bangladesh government's
own projection of 112-114 million and the UNDP estimate of 116-117 million.
Sarifa Begum rightly attributed
the 'missing millions' to unregistered 'out-migration'. Clearly, no fewer
than 14 to 15 million Bangla-deshis had sneaked into India during the 1981-91
inter-census decade. The much higher growth rates in the Indian districts
bordering Bangladesh and significantly lower growth rates in the adjoining
areas, extremely low growth in Hindu-concentrated districts and population
explosion in urban pockets of West Bengal confirmed the finding.
Some statistics tellingly illustrate
the point: Greater Jessore and Greater Khulna districts in Bangla-desh
registered 1.97 per cent and 1.58 per cent growth respectively as against
3.16 per cent in the adjoining North 24 Parganas. Greater Mymensigh district
in Bangladesh had a growth rate of 1.82 per cent against 3.84 per cent
in the adjacent Eastern Garo Hills district in Meghalaya. Greater Comilla
district (Bangladesh) showed 1.89 per cent growth against 3.36 per cent
in Tripura. There is a population explosion in many semi-urban areas of
West Bengal - Gobardanga (8.64 per cent), Khardah (9.5), Raiganj, (13.93),
Ashoknagar (7.45), Mekhliganj (7.98) and Tufanganj (22.45) per cent - against
the 2.45 per cent state average.
There is also a sharply lower growth
against the national average (2.02 per cent) in the Hindu-concentrated
districts of Bangladesh - Baisal (1.2), Gopalganj (0.9), Munshiganj (1.1),
Faridpur (1.2), Chandpur (1.2), Khulna (1.6) - confirming a heavy Hindu
exodus. The number of stranded Bihari Muslims - who had opted for Pakistan
after the creation of Bangladesh - has sharply fallen from 1.1 million
in 1971 to 250,000 in 1991. The missing 850,000 found their way to greater
Calcutta and the Katihar-Purnea-Samastipur belt of Bihar.
There is no knowing the exact size
of the current Bangladesh immigrant population in India. Considering that
there has been no significant change in the objective demographic situation
since 1991, however, the government estimate of 20 million is an eminently
acceptable figure. Prior to 1947, job seekers from East Bengal used to
come to Calcutta and the relatively thinly populated Assam and North Bengal
districts. In the immediate post-Partition years, a pervasive sense of
insecurity pushed Hindus in droves to West Bengal and other border states
in North-east India.
Since the 1974 famine in Bangla-desh,
Muslims migrating to India far outnumber Hindu immigrants, roughly at a
1:3 ratio. This has changed the demography and the communal balance of
the border population, generating inter-ethnic and inter-religious tensions.
In West Bengal, many Hindus of remote villages in the border belt have
been relocating themselves in towns for better security and protection.
Migration to border states having reached the saturation point. Many migrants,
mostly Muslim, have moved to urban centres in other states in search of
wider job opportunities.
Illegal Muslim immigrants have been
living in large concentrations in Delhi, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ajmer,
Lucknow and many other cities and towns of the northern and western states.
Many of these migrants often clandestinely visit Pakistan. Armed with all
the trappings of Indian citizenship - ration cards, local birth and domicile
certificates, voter identity cards et al - the second generation immigrants
are no longer content with the underclass status of their families. They
have set higher sights. Many have joined government services including
the police and para-military organisations, armed forces and even other
sensitive security agencies.
The presence of nearly 15 per cent
of another country's population in India underscores the significant erosion
of our national sovereignty. So much so that India has no say in who comes
and who stays in this country. In Assam and West Bengal, votes by foreigners
decisively influence election results in an increasingly large number of
parliamentary and state assembly constituencies. The rise of Islamic fundamentalism
and spread of the jehadi spirit in Bangladesh have turned the illegal immigrants
into a potent source of subversion.
In the early Nineties, pseudo-Left
Bangladeshi intellectuals had demanded lebensraum - living space - for
their country's excess population in the sparsely populated North-east.
At least two heavyweights in Begum Zia's first government (one a present
cabinet minister) had openly supported the demand, which was in line with
maverick mass leader Maulana Bhasni's dream of a 'Greater Bengal'.
The Indian government's recently
announced plan to identify, detect and deport the 20 million illegal immigrants
is overambitious. A more pragmatic approach would be to aim at preventing
further infiltration and concentrate on deporting in phases the relatively
new arrivals. Implementation of even such a modest agenda is sure to run
into fierce resistance from vested interests within the country and Bangladesh
once deportation gets underway.
Much will depend on the government's
ability to take the public on board. The agreement reached at the chief
ministers' conference last week to implement the plan is a good augury
to be used to warn Dhaka that it can ignore India's resolve to address
the problem at its own peril.
The immediate priorities of a coordinated
action plan are:
A time-bound exhaustive census of
the immigrant population and their locations.
Streamlining of border management
and immigration control focused on expeditious border-fencing and smashing
of immigration and smuggling rackets by liberally using powers of preventive
detention under the National Security Act.
Disciplining the BSF with emphasis
on weeding out of the corrupt. The force leadership at the top should be
shown the door should they fail to carry out the cleansing act within a
given deadline.
Creating a separate immigration
service and putting in place a long-term national immigration policy.
Sustained diplomacy geared to enlisting
international support for the programme and commensurate public education
campaigns at home and abroad. Do we have the will and tenacity to execute
this agenda? That, really, is the question.
(The writer is former additional
secretary, Research and Analysis Wing and retired Director-General, Indo-Tibetan
Border Police)