Author: Kunal Majumder
Publication: Tehelka
Date: April 9, 2011
URL: http://www.tehelka.com/story_main49.asp?filename=Ne090411ELECTIONS.asp
A quarter century post the Assam Accord, political parties in the state still
seek votes on the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigration
THE BORDER district of Dhubri, sandwiched
between the Brahmaputra and Gangadhar rivers in Assam, has traditionally been
a river port. After partition of the subcontinent, this Muslim-majority district
turned into a major transit point for illegal trade on the Indo-Bangladesh
border. The 44.5-km water border also allows Bangladeshis to cross over in
boats on the pretext of trade and quietly merge with the Indian population,
first in Assam and then the rest of the country.
With Assembly elections from 4 April, the
issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants is on the top of everybody's minds.
Even the banned separatist group United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) talks
of the 'threat', though its leaders get sanctuary in Bangladesh. ULFA foreign
secretary Sashadhar Choudhury confirmed to TEHELKA that the presence of foreigners
in Assam will be part of the peace talks with the Central government.
On 3 February, Dhubri Police had caught two
trucks full of cough syrup. Earlier that day, the police caught two men trying
to pass off fake currency amounting to Rs 49,000 in the market near Pathor
Ghat. The prime accused was a 28-year-old farmer Karim Ali, whose farmland
is attached to the border fence. "A person called Bokhar Ali came to
my farm in Jhowkutti and gave me 98 notes of Rs 500," he says in Bangla.
Dhubri Police Station officer incharge HC Deha says, "Bokhar Ali promised
to pay him Rs 5,000 if he could use these fake currency." Karim didn't
know how to spend so much of money, so he took the help of 24-year-old mason
Noor Islam. Somebody in the village tipped off the police and they were arrested
in Dhubri town. Where did Bokhar Ali come from? After much reluctance, Karim
says softly "Oi pare" (the other side).
People like him from 'the other side' have
been an emotive issue since 1979, when Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and other student
leaders of All Assam Students Union and the All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad
agitated for the expulsion of illegal immigrants. After the 1985 Assam Accord
with then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, Mahanta won the elections as head of
Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) to become the youngest person in India to become
the chief minister. The AGP returned to power in 1996 and was also part of
the NDA coalition under Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Having been in power, he now
claims nothing can be done on the issue of illegal immigrants at the state
level. "I did my best. Nothing more can be done at the state level. It
is completely up to the Centre," says Mahanta.
His former ally BJP has a different view.
Though chances of it coming to power in this poll are dim, the BJP has promised
to detect and deport all illegal Bangladeshi nationals. To pump up the tempo,
it put Varun Gandhi in charge of the poll campaign. Immediately after his
appointment in October last year, Gandhi organised a big rally in Nagoan with
party president Nitin Gadkari wherein he declared that Bangladeshi influx
is the main poll plank of the BJP, along with corruption.
ON THE criticism that BJP did nothing on the
issue while in power at the Centre, P Chandra Sekhar, BJP organising secretary
for the Northeast, has a quick rebuttal. "It is absolutely not true.
The main obstacle in detecting and deporting the illegal migrants was the
Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act. We challenged the Act in
the court, which was later stuck down by the Supreme Court in 2005,"
says Shekhar.
THE IMDT Act was enacted in 1983 and provided
special protection against undue harassment to the 'minorities' affected by
the Assam agitation. The BJP, along with many indigenous groups, alleges that
the Act basically makes it difficult to deport illegal immigrants from Assam.
But what is worrying now is that the illegal immigrant issue might fuel the
larger antiminority sentiment. The ghost of the Nellie massacre still lingers.
(On 18 February 1983, more than 2,000 alleged Bangladeshis in 14 villages
of Nagaon district, including Nellie, were brutally hacked to death.)
In Dhubri, just a few yards from the Circuit
House, stands the grey colonial building that houses the Foreigners' Tribunal
Office. The IMDT Act is now withdrawn, around 20,000-25,000 cases of d-voters
(doubtful voters) are still pending. In the past decade, many districts of
Assam have seen an abnormal rise of immigrant population. In a border district
like Dhubri, it is even more difficult to distinguish between an Indian Muslim
Bengali and a Bangladeshi Muslim Bengali.
Next to the tribunal office is the busiest
riverbank of the town - Pathor Ghat. Each morning, scores of men and women
from the 262 riverine islands on the Brahmaputra called chars come to Dhubri
town on passenger ferries with fresh vegetables, milk, goats, sheep, ducks
and hens. They sell their produce in Dhubri market, make their own purchases
and return by the evening ferry. Chars are formed and flooded every few years
based on the level of water in the Brahmaputra.
There is no specific figure on illegal Bangladeshi
immigrants in Assam. Indrajit Gupta, the then Union home minister, stated
in Parliament on 6 May 1997 that there were 10 million illegal migrants in
India. Some say this figure is vastly exaggerated and it should not be more
than a few lakh. While some in politics propound the conspiracy theory that
the immigration is due to the neighbouring country's geopolitical ambitions
of a greater Bangladesh, social scientists point out that it mostly due to
poverty and a serious crisis of lebensraum (living space). Due to continuous
flooding, stable land is hard to come by. "It is a natural phenomenon,
which is difficult to control," says Arup Jyoti Saikia, social science
professor of IIT, who is writing a book on the same issue. "But the fact
remains it is happening rapidly and changing the demography and culture of
Assam."
A half-hour ride on the ferry from Pathor
Ghat takes you to Motichar, 7 km from the Bangladesh border, an island that
was formed only 10 years ago. Abdul Battein, 70, speaks like any other rural
voter of India. "The MLA comes only when there is fruit in the tree.
He doesn't care about our welfare," he says. His brother Ali, 50, says
the family's only asset is a tubewell. "The local counsellor Najma Begum
is a relative, yet we have not got anything from the government," says
Ali.
During the 2009 Lok Sabha election, they voted
for the All India Democratic United Front (AIDUF). "Traditionally we
have voted for Congress, but last time we thought Maulana saab is a better
man," says Battein. Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, founding president of the
Bengali Muslim- dominated AIDUF became the surprise winner from Dhubri Lok
Sabha seat. Battein is quick to add: "Even he didn't do much for us.
Since the first election in 1950s, we have not got a single needle."
So why do they vote at all? Before any of the brothers could reply, one of
the daughters commented from inside the house. "Vote na dile, oi pare
pathiye debe!" (If we don't vote, they will send us to the other side.)
THIS ADMISSION unleashes an outburst. "The
politicians indirectly threaten us," says Ali. "We have no options.
We have to vote or else they call us Bangladeshis. Whenever we go to Guwahati
to get some work, we suddenly become foreigners." Battein adds: "Our
forefathers spent their entire life here. We have grown up on the river. If
you call us foreigners, where do we go?"
Police intelligence sources told TEHELKA that
often Bangladeshis stay in the chars before moving into the town, paying char-dwellers
to stay silent.
With the brothers reluctant to respond, Rafikul
Islam, 28, is more forthcoming. "Sir, it's true. They do come,"
he says. "Many nights, we have seen cattle being herded across the Brahmaputra."
Islam adds that it is easy for the illegal
immigrants to get a passport or PAN card. Apparently, all you need is a false
letterhead with logo of the panchayat and a local address. Battein adds: "Our
relatives from Bangladesh get all the papers. But we are the people who get
harassed."
Monirul Hussain, 48, who works on a farm,
says, "They generally use the time gap between BSF shift changes ,"
says Hussain. "Many times they use women as fronts. If BSF personnel
catch the women, they are threatened with rape charges."
One of the biggest facilitators in recent
times have been cell phones. Standing on any of the chars or on the river,
you get clear connectivity from both Indian as well as Bangladeshi telecom
providers. "Informers near BSF camps use mobile phones to communicate
and warn each other," reveals Hussain.
The AIDUF, which has nine seats in the outgoing
Assembly, now plans to contest 74 seats. General Secretary Baharul Islam calls
the whole immigrant issue a Congress political gimmick and RSS propaganda.
"If there are illegal immigrants, please deport them. Ask the BSF jawans
at the border, how do Bangladeshis enter the state?" he asks. He goes
on to question the very premise of the issue - rise in Muslim population in
five districts of Assam. "When there is 75 percent increase in tribal
and Christian population, there are no questions asked. Why not talk about
the infiltration from Nepal and Burma?" he rationalises.
But the immigration issue looms so large over
Assam's consciousness that the political agenda is unlikely to change anytime
soon. An unfortunate consequence is that other pressing people's issues get
short shrift.
Kunal Majumder is Correspondent with Tehelka
- kunal@tehelka.com
