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Journalism of Courage
The Centre8217;s decision to repeal the controversial Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunals Act has not been received well by Assam8217;s minority communities and non-BJP parties, long opposed to the scrapping of the Act, are describing it as a pre-poll stunt.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the Congress would oppose 8216;8216;tooth and nail8217;8217; the decision to do away with the law. But the Asom Gana Parishad AGP, which has been clamouring for the repeal since 1985, hailed the decision. It asked PM A.B. Vajpayee to 8216;8216;prove his sincerity8217;8217; by 8216;8216;actually repealing8217;8217; the Act.
Gogoi questioned the Centre8217;s decision, saying the announcement didn8217;t make sense when the very issue was before the Supreme Court. 8216;8216;Why is it that the NDA has decided on the matter towards the end of its term?8217;8217; the Chief Minister wondered.
The United Minorities Front, an offshoot of the Congress dating back to 1985 when Rajiv Gandhi signed the Assam Accord with the All Assam Students8217; Union AASU, too opposed the move, saying it would create 8216;8216;a fear psychosis8217;8217; among religious minorities in the state.
8216;8216;Now that the Centre has made an announcement, minorities in Assam will again be harassed. Reactionary elements like the AASU and government officers and policemen will try and scare, harass the minorities. Once the Act goes, there will be no rule of law. The police will be at liberty to pick any Bengali-speaking Muslim and push him out,8217;8217; said United Minorities Front president Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury.
Critical of the announcement, Abdul Muhib Mazumdar, a former Congress leader, maintained that the IMDT Act was not an impediment to the detection process as claimed by the AGP, BJP or the AASU. 8216;8216;How come the BJP-led government failed to expel Bangladeshis from Delhi and West Bengal where the Act is not in force?8217;8217; countered Mazumdar, considered the main author of the controversial Act way back in 1983.
Gogoi, Choudhury and Mazumdar echoed the view that Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani made the announcement, keeping in mind the Lok Sabha elections next year. 8216;8216;The BJP wants to hoodwink the people of Assam by making such an announcement at the end of its term,8217;8217; said Choudhury, pointing out that NDA partners too were opposed to scrapping the law.
Veteran minority leader A F Golam Osmani, one of the founders of the United Minorities Front who later returned to Congress, said a mere announcement by Advani could not repeal the Act.
8216;8216;This Act has provided judicial protection to genuine minorities, saving them from harassment in the name of detecting Bangladeshi migrants. Plus the arithmetic in Parliament will not allow the Act8217;s repeal,8217;8217; Osmani said.
Assam government figures show that the number of expulsions after the Act came into force in 1985 dropped drastically. While as many as 58,148 were deported between 1974 and 1984, only 10,802 people were declared illegal migrants by IMDT tribunals in the state between 1985 and 2002.
And of these, it was possible to serve expulsion notices to only 5,999 people. Actual expulsions totalled only 1501.
