India has porous borders all sides. The Eastern sector is more vulnerable for illegal Bangladeshi and Nepali migrants. The southern tip regularly receives asylum seekers from Sri Lanka. The Northern most Kashmir faces terrorist infiltrators from Pakistan. The Western side is not safe with the sea terrorists intruding and smugglers using it as a regular route. Among the problems in all four sides, Bangladeshi migrants pose a severe threat to India’s development.
The scale of migrants from Bangladesh threatens to eat away all the aid given to the Indian poor. More tragically the migrants from Bangladesh are tipped to be involved in terrorist activities. The worst affected states are Assam, Tripura and Delhi. West Bengal too faces illegal Bangladeshi immigrant problems. In Delhi alone there are 3.5 lakh illegal Bangladesh migrants freely roam around.
Most of these migrants carry valid Indian national identity proofs like ration card, voters card and others. Some of them even carry PAN card and Passports. Despite the Supreme Court ruling to crackdown the illegal migrants from the east neighborhood, the UPA government has gone smooth on the issue for the sake of Muslim votes. Fortunately most of the Muslims are not against any legal duty deliverance and development deliverance. But unfortunately the UPA stalwarts think the other way and stopped all governance.
According to the Foreigners Regional Registration Office (FRRO), Delhi between 1991 and October 2008, 36,522 illegal Bangladeshis have been deported. The northeast, est, south and southeast district in the national capital city has the highest concentration of Bangladeshis. Out of 23,292 Bangladeshi deported from the city since 2004, a whooping 11,620 (almost 50%) were from the trans-yamuna region.
Deported
2008 (till Sept’08) 2,987
2007 4017
2006 4824
2005 5,725
2004 6,002
2003 5,760
2002 2,987
2001 262
2000 411
District-wise distribution
(from 2004 to Sept, 2008)
Northeast 5,937
East 5,683
North 1,772
Central 931
Northwest 1,155
Southwest 1,1,58
West 1,205
New Delhi 07
IGI Air Port 09
Outer 55 (Cell formed in 2007)
Southeast district cell formed a few months ago, not included
Source: The Times of India, 12 January 2009, p.4
The home minister, P. Chidambaram said ‘I don’t regard a Bangladeshi as a Muslim or a non-Muslim. He is a Bangladeshi. He has no business to come to India unless he has a visa. He has no business to live here unless he has a residence permit.” Now he must act and ensure a corruption free border checking and illegal migrant evacuation teams. Most of the police officers extort money and leave the migrants to continue their stay.
With the large-scale corruption in the law enforcing agencies it is impossible to put an end to the migrant menace. In the first step, Chidambaram should check the top police officers honesty quotient through suitable mechanism and appoint them for the sensitive job like illegal migrant evacuation and terror control. Otherwise insiders will continue to aid the external forces to wreak havoc on the sovereignty of India.
Dr. A. Prabaharan's 