Ignoring the Assam alarm

But have the UPA Government at the Centre and the Congress Government in Assam heeded the warning? Have they shown any willingness to contribute to this fight to save Assam? Judge for yourselves on the basis of the following facts.

Every well-informed observer of the situation in Assam knows that the principal cause of the violence that has traumatised this once-tranquil state is the massive influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The prolonged agitation of the Assamese people against this threat culminated in the Assam Accord of 1985. The Rajiv Gandhi Government enacted the Illegal Migrants Determination through Tribunal Act. But the IMDT Act was a cure worse than the disease. Far from checking the infiltration of Bangladeshis, it further gave a boost to it. This happened because the Rajiv Gandhi Government had deliberately introduced certain flaws into the Act, which neither the Congress nor any of the self-styled secular parties were subsequently willing to remove. After another prolonged legal battle by anti-foreigner forces in Assam, the Supreme Court, in its July 2005 verdict, struck down IMDT Act as 8220;unconstitutional8221; and urged the Central Government to take effective steps to stop the influx of Bangladeshis. Indeed, the Supreme Court warned that large-scale infiltration from Bangladesh constituted 8220;external aggression8221; against Assam.

The Guwahati High Court8217;s warning is no less dire. Its observations in a recent case relating to a Pakistani national who came to Bangladesh, then infiltrated into Assam, got his name registered on the voters8217; list and even managed to contest the 1996 Assembly elections, are an eye-opener to every Indian concerned about the future of our country. Observing in despair that 8220;this can happen only in Assam8221;, the court noted that 8220;illegal Bangladeshi immigrants are slowly becoming the 8216;king makers8217; in Assam and will reduce indigenous Assamese to a minority8230;.8221;

One can give numerous other instances of warnings sounded by people in authority. For example, in 1996, T.V. Rajeshwar, a former Director of the IB and the current Governor of Uttar Pradesh, had warned, through a series of newspaper articles, that unchecked illegal immigration from Bangladesh into Assam and other border states in the North-East 8220;could some day lead to a third division of India8221;. When he was Governor of Assam, Gen. Retd S.K. Sinha, had also cautioned about grave consequences for India8217;s unity and security if the problem of Bangladeshi infiltration is not tackled firmly.

How has the UPA Government reacted to these warnings? By doing nothing. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been a Rajya Sabha member from Assam for the past 18 years. Has he ever spoken, either as PM or as MP, about the threat posed by infiltrators from Bangladesh who have changed the demography of several districts of Assam completely? Never.

In fact, he has done something to the contrary. On July 15, 2004, Sriprakash Jaiswal, Minister of State for Home Affairs in the UPA Government, said in the Rajya Sabha that 8220;1,20,53,950 illegal Bangladeshi migrants were residing in 17 states and Union territories as on 31 December 2001.8221; He also said that fifty lakh Bangladeshis were living in Assam. Dr Singh happened to visit Guwahati the following day. He was confronted by the state8217;s Congress Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and his other party colleagues who were concerned that Jaiswal8217;s reply in Parliament could affect the Congress party8217;s prospects in the 2006 Vidhan Sabha elections in Assam. They put pressure on the Prime Minister that the official statement be retracted. Dr Singh succumbed to pressure and publicly stated that he doubted the authenticity of the information provided by his own junior minister. A week later, Jaiswal told Parliament that the information that he had provided about Bangladeshi infiltrators 8220;is unreliable and based on hearsay8221;!

Bangladesh is now exporting not only illegal immigrants, but also terror. Terrorist groups like the Lashkar-e-Toiba LeT, the Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami HuJI and the United Liberation Front of Asom ULFA, have been operating freely from Bangladeshi soil. This is a new form of cross-border terrorism in the east, complementing the one in the west.

Why has the Prime Minister8212;or, for that matter, Sonia Gandhi8212;never spoken about the demographic invasion by Bangladeshi infiltrators? Well, because they constitute a solid vote-bank for the Congress.

We can8217;t expect the UPA Government to show seriousness in either fighting terrorism or tackling the underlying problem of the foreigners8217; growing occupation of Assam. Nevertheless, Vajpayee8217;s advice 8212;8220;all of us have to fight this challenge collectively8221;8212;has to be heeded by all right thinking people in all political parties for whom India8217;s unity, integrity and security takes precedence over vote-bank considerations.

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