Work Permits to Infiltrators:need for caution

South Asia Analysis Group

Paper no.248

28. 05. 2001

WORK PERMITS TO INFILTRATORS: need for caution

by R. Upadhyay

Contrary to the known stand of the BJP, the recent pronouncement of Prime Minister Vajpayee in an election rally in Assam that his government was seriously considering a proposal to issue work permits for infiltrators from Bangladesh, has once again generated a debate on this vital issue. Right from the day of partition of British India, the policy of successive Congress governments on the issue of the influx from erstwhile East Pakistan and now Bangladesh has been criticised by the BJS and now the BJP.

In 1957, when Vajpayee was elected to the Lok Sabha for the first time, he had warned the then Congress Government led by Pandit Nehru that the situation would take an explosive turn if no effective remedial steps were taken to prevent illegal infiltration ( Presidential speech of Vajpayee as a founder president of the BJP in 1980). In fact it was an important issue of his party to spread its political ideology in North East and West Bengal. His party was never convinced with the plea of the Congress Governments that it was difficult to prevent infiltration through the 4035 km long Indo-Bangladesh border.

The history of infiltration shows that the Congress party in its forty years of rule in the country after independence was never serious in tackling the situation firmly. On the other hand its half-hearted initiative to prevent this menace encouraged the illegal migrants, who gradually settled in millions in the bordering states of North East as well as in other parts of the country. The irony of the situation is that the Bangladesh Government has never accepted that there has been any infiltration from there to India till date.

According to the Nehru-Liaquat pact of April 6, 1950, India agreed to accept all the immigrants, who crossed over to this country by December 31,1950 as Indian citizens. This resulted in large scale migration from East Pakistan to Assam as there was no mechanism to identify the immigrants who entered India after this date. Realising the gravity of the situation, the Government of India passed Immigrant Detection Act for their expulsion and accordingly about six hundred thousand of them were pushed back. However, the government could not remain firm on its stand and succumbed to the pressure of the Muslim leaders of Assam to repeal this Act in 1957. The then Bhartiya Jan Sangh of which Vajpayee was a prominent leader opposed this action of the then Congress Government led by Pandit Nehru tooth and nail. But the infiltration continued.

After the Sino Indian war of 1962, the Government of India on the advice of its security agencies again took some initiative to prevent infiltration in coordination with the state governments of Assam and West Bengal and repatriated about 1.5 lakh infiltrators.   But the major set back of the Congress party in 1967 general election and the loss of its governments from West Bengal to Punjab forced the Congress Government at centre to abandon the scheme of repatriation of infiltrators. This was a move to please the Muslim voters in general and their leaders in Assam and West Bengal in particular. Since then, the illegal migrants became the vote bank of both the Congress and the Communists and the aggressive campaign of the BJS on this issue was countered as communal propaganda.

After the emergence of Bangladesh in December 1971, the problem of repatriation of Bangladesh refugees, who had taken shelter in India during Indo-Pak war posed a major problem for Government of India. As per World Bank report, the financial burden of refugee relief on India was estimated to be about $ 700 millions in the fiscal year 1971-72 ( Page 45, Bangladesh: Liberation to Fundamentalism ). The issue was however, discussed between the two countries and as per Indira-Mujib pact of 1972, it was agreed that all those refugees, who entered India prior to March 25, 1971(the day Mujibur Rehman gave call for Independence of Bangladesh) will be allowed to stay back in India.

In the absence of any effective mechanism to prevent any further infiltration, Indira-Mujib pact could not be implemented and the illegal influx of large scale Bangladeshis to various states of the country continued unabated. Occasionally the Union Ministers of successive Governments expressed concern on this issue but no serious effort was ever made by them to check the infiltration.

The full dimension of the infiltration was realised by the Government when the census figures of 1981 was analysed with the census figures of 1971. It was found that in 8 districts of West Bengal and 6 districts of Bihar, the growth of Muslim population was between 40 to 100 percent. Besides, the change over from Nehru-Liaquat pact to Indira-Mujib pact, which allowed all the infiltrators, who came to India till March 24,1971 served as a nucleus for the students movement in Assam against the foreigners issue. Realising the gravity of the situation, Government of India was left with no option but to initiate some dialogue with Bangladesh Government. But the denial of Bangladesh Government of any illegal infiltration from their country halted the efforts of the Government to tackle the issue.

During the period between 1983-84 the then Congress Government led by Ms Indira Gandhi took the initiative to seal the Indo-Bangladesh border with barbed wire fencing even though the Bangladesh Government strongly protested against the move. The then Union Home Minister Narsimha Rao defended the action but his statement in parliament on August 23, 1984 showed his helplessness. He said: �Whenever the question of infiltration has been taken up with the Bangladesh Government, there has been a standard reply that there is no infiltration, they have always denied that there has been any movement of Bangladesh nationals to India, and yet we on our part found them in flesh and blood.�(India-Bangladesh Relation � Document �Edited by Avatar Singh Bhasin, page CXXXIX)

In January 1985 Rajiv Gandhi reiterated the determination of his Government for the barbed wire fencing. The Assam Accord signed on August 15, 1985 between Government of India, Government of Assam and the agitating student leaders was to delete the names of Bangladesh nationals, who came to India between January 1,1966 to March 24,1971 from the voters list for 10 years. Those, who entered on or after March 25,1971shall be detected and deported. However, Rajiv Gandhi Government gradually developed cold feet as far as barbed wire fencing and implementation of Assam accord were concerned. On the other hand Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in a luncheon meeting (October 11,1985) at Press Club of India ridiculed the idea of fencing and the issue was put in cold storage (Page CXI ii � Indo Bangladesh Relation � Document Volume I edited by Avatar Singh Bhasin).

Against the backdrop of the half-hearted exercise and failure of Congress Government to prevent infiltration, the BJP, which was completely marginalised in 1984 Lok-Sabha election took up this issue as an important agenda to attack the former. In its National Executive Committee/National Council meet ( Vijaywada, Dated December 31,1986 to January 4,1987), the BJP leaders discussed this issue in detail and linked it with the major security threat to the country. The document (page 23) issued by the top policy making body of the party during this conclave said that � serious efforts are going on to create a belt inhabited totally by the Bangladeshi infiltrators along the entire Bangladesh border. The pattern also reflects a silent but planned population invasion�(Quoted from �Hindu Nationalists in India by Yogendra K.Malik and V.B.Singh). The BJP also took a stand that the Congress and the CPI (M) gave protection to the infiltrators and enlisted them as voters for their respective electoral gains.   Since then the issue remained as one prominent item of the agenda of the BJP as long as it was in opposition.

In its 1998 election manifesto the BJP criticised both the Congress and United Front Governments for deliberately neglecting the problem of infiltration. Quoting the number of infiltrators as over 1.7 crore, the BJP felt that its adverse impact on economy and social as well as political order of the country has posed problems of grave magnitude. The party manifesto promised that its Government would:

� Take more stringent measures to intercept illegal infiltrators and turn them back. Fencing of the border wherever possible will be urgently taken up. ��

In the light of the electoral promises made by the BJP, when its Prime Minister after ruling the country for over three years announced that his Government was considering to issue work permit to infiltrators and the party defending the move on the ground that it will help in identifying the illegal immigrants, it shows the same helplessness as was in the case of the previous Governments. It is also an indication that Vajpayee Government is equally responsible for its failure to formulate any proactive strategy to deal with this situation, which has gradually reached an alarming stage. Narendra Modi, the General Secretary of the party in an interview (Pioneer dated May 19,2001) has confirmed that �in Assam, infiltrators have shown their power, which they acquired through the right to vote�. The BJS/BJP leaders always cautioned the Congress Governments to take lessons from the failure of Nehru-Liaquat pact, Tashkent Agreement, Indira-Mujib pact, Shimla Agreement and Assam Accord, but the work permit initiative of Vajpayee Government also shows that it is equally responsible for not learning any lessons from the failure of Lahore Declaration, and cease-fire in Kashmir, while dealing with its theocratic neighbour.

The BJP may argue that the idea of providing work permits to the infiltrators will help the Government to identify the infiltrators and register them for subsequently deleting their names from the voters list. But how the Government, which has not been able to convince the Bangladesh authorities about the on going infiltration are going to send them back, is a million dollar question. The Government in fact did not take any initiative to carry out even the census of Bangladesh infiltrators in India. The work permit on the other hand will attract more and more infiltrators and add to the swelling population explosion in the country.

The people of the country are fully aware that the soft attitude towards illegal immigrants from any country is against the national interest. One could understand the political design of the Congress party and the Communists for their soft attitude towards the infiltrators, but Vajpayee�s softness on this vital issue has raised eyebrows within the supporters of the forces of Hindutva also.

It is a well known fact that India sacrificed a large number of its army personnel and spent huge money over the maintenance of Bangladesh refugees for creation of Bangladesh. But the recent barbaric killing of BSF personnel by Bangladesh Rifles shows that Indo-Bangladesh friendship is nothing but a myth.

With the visible change in the demographic profile in the bordering areas of Assam and West Bengal and growth in their strength to the extent of influencing the political set up in these states through the right of voting power as confirmed by the BJP General Secretary Narendra Modi, the situation demands a firm action. There is a general perception that the ethnic, lingual and religious similarity of Bangladeshi Muslims with the Indian Muslims of West Bengal has made their identification very difficult. But the marked difference in the colloquial Bengali dialects of Bangladeshis is so distinct that any Bengali official of West Bengal can easily identify them.   Therefore, the task of preventing the illegal infiltration may be arduous but it is not impossible if the Government is determined to take firm steps to force Bangladesh in whatever manner it is necessary and feasible.   On the contrary if the situation is allowed to persist, it would lead to social tensions in the country and add to the security problems.

( The writer had closely observed the influx of Bangladeshis during his stay in North East and as such the analysis is based on his personal experience. e-mail: ramashray6o @ yahoo.com )

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