Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani says that there are nearly 20 million Bangladeshis illegally staying in various parts of India and that they need to be sent back to “their” country. Bangladesh asserts that there is not even a single such person. For Advani, the problem is further compounded by the fact that there is no national consensus on how to confront it.No Indian government has so far revealed the basis on which they have quantified the number of illegal Bangladeshis. But, at the same time, it will be wrong to deny the problem exists. Indrajit Gupta, India’s first communist home minister, told Lok Sabha on May 6, 1997, that there were one crore illegal Bangladeshi migrants in India. Now his successor claiming that the number has nearly doubled over six years may be a little too much to take but that does not minimise the gravity of the problem, particularly when Dhaka closes its eyes to it officially, while encouraging the trend.In 1990, at seminars in Dhaka, for instance, ruling elites of Bangladesh advocated the idea of “lebensraum” (living space). Articles on the subject appeared in the Holiday magazine. Abdul Momin, a former foreign secretary of Bangladesh wrote that “the runaway population growth in Bangladesh resulting in suffocating density of population in a territorially small country presents a nightmarish picture. our bulging population might find a welcome in adjacent lands inhabited by kindred people”. Sadeq Khan, a former Bangladesh ambassador wrote that “by the first decade of 21st century Bangladesh will face a serious crisis of lebensraum. there is no reason why regional and international cooperation could not be worked out to plan and execute population movements.’’ It may be recalled here that before partition of the country in 1947, the Muslim League had left no stone unturned to have the then undivided Assam in the proposed Pakistan. Before the emergence of Bangladesh as an independent country, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had written in the book titled Eastern Pakistan: Its Population and Economics that “Because Eastern Pakistan must have sufficient land for its expansion and because Assam has abundant forests and mineral resources, coal, petroleum etc. Eastern Pakistan must include Assam to be financially and economically strong”.It is not only foolish but also dangerous to treat the problem of illegal immigration lightly. But what can India do to contain the problem? The US has liberally legalised many illegal immigrants by making them citizens. But India cannot do this beyond a point. Similarly, Indira Gandhi’s decision to put barbed wire fence on the Indo-Bangladesh border has not proved workable.As economist Jagdish Bhagwati has recently argued in the American journal Foreign Affairs, illegal immigration as a global phenomenon is virtually unstoppable. The tremendous growth and clout of human rights groups and liberal press in democratic countries provide serious constraints on all forms of restrictive action against illegal immigrants. Besides, the sociology and politics of ethnicity undercut enforcement efforts in the sense that ethnic groups can provide protective cover to their members and allow illegals to disappear into their midst.Under these circumstances, India may find the German model of treating illegal immigrants interesting. The large Turkish population in Germany has been allowed to stay and work but they have been declared stateless citizens and denied the right of voting. Simultaneously, we can also apply the Bhagwati thesis that “greater development support should be extended to the illegal migrants’ countries of origin to alleviate the poor economic conditions that propel emigration” to India-Bangladesh relations. There is hope that the present Khaleeda Zia regime in Dhaka would extend a cooperative hand to India. For, notwithstanding her “anti-India image”, hers is the only government which once came closest to accepting the existence of the problem of illegal immigration. The joint communiqu‚ of May 28, 1992, issued at the end of her visit to New Delhi as prime minister, had said: “Taking into account the problems being caused due to large scale illegal migration of people across their borders, they (PMs of India, Bangladesh) expressed their determination to stop illegal movement of people across the border by all possible means.” It’s time to revive the 1992 spirit.(The writer is national fellow, Indian Council of Historical Research)
