Bangladeshis in North-East

THE Government of India’s initiative to develop a Unique Identification Number for every Indian under the leadership of Nandan Nilekani is a master stroke. Yet, I am not sure it would be able to conclusively deal with the issue of citizenship, which is extremely sensitive and complex in the North-East, especially in Assam.

Despite a border fence, migrants still come for economic purposes, to work and earn a living. While it is clear that some of the movement is temporary — of people going back and forth for work, especially as unskilled labour — but another part of it is permanent, with people leaving their homes with the intention of setting up a new residence.

Some move to Assam and then travel to other parts o the North-East and go to different parts of India. An elaborate process of travel touts and organisers helps this movement.

There are an estimated 15 to 20 lakhs illegal migrants in Assam and no law or government is strong enough or determined enough to “throw them out” as agitators would have them do.

It is not as easy as it sounds: the concentration of migrants, the mixing with local communities (also Muslim and originally Bengali speakers who have adopted Assamese as their new language) and the dangers of communal clashes/ trouble leading to major law and order situations are the very reasons why no government in Delhi or Assam over the past 20 years, despite spewing hot rhetoric, has been able to do anything substantial about it.

No government wants to create a law and order problem for itself — and there are not less than estimated 20 million Bangladeshis in India: to put this figure in proportion, it represents 12 per cent of Bangladesh’s population or one-third of Assam.

Mr Nikelani’s commission must consult the old registers and lists related to citizens, settlers and voters. This is a huge, thankless and elaborate task, which assumes greater significance because still we do not know how many refugees India hosts or how many are migrants or illegal migrants. After all, who will be entitled to the UIN? How would you diffentiate between a foreign national who claims Indian citizenship and a bona fide Indian?

There should be a National Immigration Commission, but there should be ID cards for all residents in the region based on the National Register of Citizens of 1951 and then Work Permits for all who have come after 1971.

There is an agreement at the bilateral level between India and Bangladesh of 1972 on the position on citizenship as well as the agreement between New Delhi and the All Assam Students Union in 1985 that laid down conditions for allowing the pre-1971 migrants to vote and also said that those who came after 1971 would be identified and deported.

This has not happened because of the illegal migratnts determination by tribunal law of 1983, which was designed to protect settlers and applied only to Assam, was in place until the Supreme Court threw it out as ultra vires of the Constitution three years back.

The Centre resorted to subterfuge by amending the Foreigners Tribunal Order to make the relevant part applicable only to the Assam Government but that too was struck down by the apex court.

In the process a lot of time has been wasted. Yet, despite the emotions that the issue of migration arouses, it is important to look at innovative ways in which the border management and migration regulatory regimes need to be made practical.

Thus, the proposed work permits would not be an acceptance of permanent settlement nor would it confer the right to vote; it would confirm the temporary status of migrants and ensure they would not be eligible to the rights of a citizens — to acquire immovable property, move elsewhere in the country, marry locally and exercise franchise.

The significance of the work permits cannot be stressed enough — the Government of India plans to spend a staggering Rs 55,000 crore on developing road infrastructure in the North-East in the next few years. That will require labour — which does not exist.

The Arjun Sengupta Commission on Unemployment in the Unorganised Sector said that 23 lakh workers would be required by 2015. The North-East has bare three lakh. Where is the balance going to come from? No points for guessing: from other labour-producing parts of India, and probably Bangladesh.

Border management is crucial in a region which has 96 per cent of its borders with other countries and 4 per cent with the rest of India. In that process, the classification of the outflow from Bangladesh as a labour flow may help.

We need to be clear about some of these issues as rhetoric misleads and fudges the real point. While Constitutional guarantees must be provided to the locals with a majority of seats in the state assembly reserved for them in perpetuity, Mr Nilekani has his work cut out for him as far as the North-East is concerned.

It is our hope that some of the points given above will help in the process of developing a robust and realistic plan that silences doomsday pundits.

by Sanjoy Hazarika
The Tribune, Chandigarh – August 31, 2009