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MAKING A 'MENACE' OF MIGRANTS
By VIR SANGHVI
Do you know how many illegal Bangladeshi immigrants there are in
India? Are there 30 million of them? What about 20 million? Or is the
figure as low as 10 million?
I ask because the truth is that nobody knows how many illegal
Bangladeshi migrants have made India their home. Every figure you read
will be an approximation or — and this is more likely — a simple
guess. The 30-million figure, for instance, is usually quoted by
people who want to claim that the problem of migration has now veered
dangerously out of control. Because 30 million sounds more alarming
than 10 million, it is this figure that will get quoted. But nobody
knows that there are, in fact, 10 million illegal immigrants (the 30
million figure is just plain ridiculous) because no statistics exist.
At an intuitive level, however, we do recognise that there are many
illegal migrants in
India. The border between India and Bangladesh is porous and there is
little that anyone can do to check migration. Moreover, many people in
the border villages do not recognise that an international boundary
exists. It is not uncommon for a man to cycle from a Bangladeshi
village to a town in India to buy something — and for him to then
cycle back home on the same day.
So, there are many Bangladeshis in the border districts of West
Bengal. Because there are few cultural differences, they fit in easily
with the local people. Many of these Bangladeshis do then make their
way to such cities as Calcutta or Delhi.
This by itself should not be a cause for much concern. We were all
part of the same country till 1947 and it is inevitable that people
will keep moving between the nations of South Asia, no matter how the
international boundaries are drawn.
But, we are repeatedly told, the "problem of Bangladeshi migrants" is
different. First of all, there are supposed to be too many of them.
Secondly, there is a danger that some of them will have terrorist
links. And finally, there is no way that India can sustain such a huge
burden on its resources. There are simply not enough jobs to go
around.
If you think about it, none of this makes much sense. The figures, as
we have seen, are just concoctions. The terrorism stuff is nonsense.
There is very little evidence that Bangladeshis foment terrorism in
India and no evidence at all that the rag-pickers, sweepers and
domestic servants who constitute the bulk of the illegal migrant
population have a terrorist agenda.
That leaves us with the not-enough-jobs-to-go-around argument. This
seems reasonable enough till you realise that nobody objects to
immigration from Nepal. In fact, we actually encourage Nepalis to come
and seek employment in India and have special laws in place that
enable them to cross the border without passports and to work without
visas.
So, why are there enough jobs for Nepalis and not enough jobs for Bangladeshis?
Not only is the answer obvious but here's another fact: many of those
who have left Bangladesh and opted for India are Hindus who feel
increasingly alienated because of the Islam-isation of Bangladeshi
society. But, do you ever hear of a drive against illegal Hindu
immigrants? On the contrary, such parties as the BJP have invited
Bangladeshi Hindus to seek shelter in India.
No doubt, there are enough jobs to go around when it comes to Bengali Hindus.
But why blame the BJP alone? The Congress is as responsible for
creating the scare about illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. In 1993, when
Narasimha Rao was Prime Minister, we made the mental shift from seeing
Bangladesh as a source of cheap labour to suddenly seeing it as a
menacing country from which millions of illegal immigrants would
deprive happy Hindus of their jobs.
It was in 1993 that the government launched Operation Pushback which
authorised the police to pick up thousands of poor Bengali Muslims
from all over Delhi and to send them to the border. Bangladesh refused
to accept these people — claiming that they were not Bangladeshis at
all — and many were stuck in the no-man's land on the edge of the
border before eventually sneaking back into India after bribing
soldiers and officials.
Operation Pushback — and its equivalents in other cities — continues
to this day even if the name has changed. It is still the
responsibility of the police to round up illegal Bangladeshis and to
send them back across the border. The Delhi Police, for instance, has
ten Task Forces whose primary function is to scour Delhi looking for
Bangladeshis to ship back to Dhaka. In other cities too — and the
Bangladeshi scare has now taken hold in Bombay — more and more
policemen are being pulled away from their normal duties (i.e., the
maintenance of law and order) and being told to concentrate on looking
for Bangladeshis.
In my view, the police should have better things to do. But even if
you disagree with me and
believe that illegal immigration is a serious problem, I don't think
it is possible for anybody to support the manner in which alleged
Bangladeshis are being deported.
I have been reading a pamphlet produced by the Citizen's Campaign for
Preserving Democracy. Members of this group studied the way in which
the police rounded up Bangladeshis. And what they found is truly
disturbing.
First of all, many of the people being deported are not even
Bangladeshis. Under the Foreigners Act, the burden of proof is on the
accused and not on the police (you are guilty till proved otherwise).
So the only way for a Bengali Muslim to prove that he is an Indian is
to produce documentation. But few poor people in India possess any
documents at all. So, the police can pick up and deport anybody they
like as long as: a) he speaks Bengali, b) is a Muslim, and c) looks
like he lacks the resources to defend himself.
Secondly, the notion of due process does not exist. All civilised
countries constitute some kind of judicial body that serves as a court
of appeal and allows the man who is being deported a chance to be
heard.
In theory, India also allows for this kind of appeal. According to the
Foreigners Act, there should be a tribunal. And the Illegal Migrants
(DT) Act of 1983 has a provision for a tribunal. But no tribunal has been constituted in Delhi under the Foreigners'
Act. And as for the Illegal Migrants (DT) Act, well, that's not valid
in Delhi.
In effect, this means that the authorities can decide that anybody is
an illegal immigrant and can throw him out of the country. There is
nothing a victim can do by way of protest. There is no appeal at all.
Thirdly, because the police are not very good at identifying illegal
immigrants, they rely on a network of local informers who point out
the so-called Bangladeshis. Because these informers are trusted
implicitly by the police, they have complete power over their
communities. Anybody who does not keep them happy will be deported
unless he then pays off the local police. This is a system that lends
itself to injustice and corruption and, of course, these are exactly
the consequences that follow.
Fourthly, the Task Forces work on the basis of a quota. In a manner
reminiscent of the sterilisation quotas during the Emergency, each
Task Force has to identify 100 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants every
day. Obviously, the police cut corners in an effort to fill this quota
— even if this means deporting non-Bangladeshi Muslims.
And finally, there is a complete violation of all international
protocol. Diplomatic procedure requires that if you are deporting
nationals of another country, you inform that country's embassy or
high commission. But nobody bothers to inform the Bangladeshi Mission.
What worries me the most about all this is that we in the media have
been happy to go along with the Bangladeshi migration scare despite
its plainly xenophobic and frankly communal nature. Perhaps this is
because the victims of the injustice — the poorest of the poor,
rag-pickers, slum-dwellers etc — do not constitute our readership or
viewership or impinge on our world.
But this is no longer about poor people or even about Bangladeshis. It
is about how we define ourselves as a society. Are we to become a
country that allows policemen to pick up anybody they like and throw
him out without any kind of due process? Or are we to be a society of
laws where everyone has the right to be heard and where justice is
freely dispensed?
How you answer those questions does, I think, determine your response
to the drive against Bangladeshi migrants.
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