>One of the things you hear
common people tell you (in Assam) is that there is big money in NOT getting the
problems of >illegal or insurgency solved. It seems, it is beneficial to just
keep the issues in the front burner - but, NOT really find any >solutions. Insurgents,
politicians, power blocks, leaders, and unscruplous businesses reap
huge benefits at the expense >of the common man - the khetiok, the kerani,
the school mastor, etc.
You are absolutely correct. I
probably have stated in the net before.
Nobody is actually interested in
finding solutions to these damn problems.
It is not in the interests of those
in power either in Assam or in India.
It is not in the interest of
ULFA.
It is not in the interests of
PCG.
It is not in the interests of
Assamese business community.
Ans poor Hobo Diok Assamese public
don't count anyway.
What is happening in Assam is
Insurgency is being turned into a business carrer.
Or we may say Professional
Insurgency at its best.
60-40 ? No I wil take 70-30? What
do you say Doc?
Assam and the North East may teach
the world a lesson.
As I said before:
It is the best of times, it is the
worst of times.
Happy New Year!!
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Sunday, January 01, 2006 10:45
AM
Subject: Re: [Assam] Illegal
Bangladeshis, is it a myth?
Barua,
I don't see anybody from
Assam writing in National Newsparers about the illegel immigration problem.
While the people in other states
have little or no idea of the problem, politicians & insurgents in
Assam probably have no earthly desire to find a solution to the problem
either.
One of the things you hear common
people tell you (in Assam) is that there is big money in NOT getting the
problems of illegals or insurgency solved. It seems, it is beneficial to just
keep the issues in the front burner - but, NOT really find any solutions. Insurgents,
politicians, power blocks, leaders, and unscruplous businesses
reap huge benefits at the expense of the common man - the khetiok, the kerani,
the school mastor, etc.
So, why on earth will the
intellectuals/writers ever write or make people of other states even
aware of the problems? It is the same as the problem of 'others' not
aware of the culture/language of Assam. We don't let them know, but feel bad
that they are not aware of our existence.
--Ram
On 12/31/05, Barua25 <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>In all his analyes, Mr. Sanghvi has not mentioned Assam or the
other Northeast states even once. The illegal immigration >problem is a
major issue in these states. He mentions Mumbai, West Bengal and even Delhi,
but is totally unaware of where >the actual problem lies. It is in Assam,
Mr. Sanghvi. So, please make it a point to visit the state, and see for
yourself, and do >brush up on your research.
Is Assam in India?
Sorry for asking the question,
because I don't see anybody from Assam writing in National Newsparers about
the illegel immigration problem. I remember vaguely the peopel of Assam had
an agitation demanding all non Assamese out of Assam, but I did not know
that illegel immigration from Bangladesh is also a problem there. I know it
is a problem in Delhi, Mumbai and other cities.
Hey assam, please let us know
what is your problem.
RB
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Saturday, December 31, 2005
7:54 PM
Subject: [Assam] Illegal
Bangladeshis, is it a myth?
Here is an article from the Hindustan Times on the Bangladeshi
migration.
The article made me so upset, I dashed off my comments in a
hurry.
My comments are below (don't know if they will publish
it though).
I would urges others to also write to the HT if possible.
_________________________________________________________
Making
a 'Menace' of Migrants
Counterpoint | Vir Sanghvi (Jan 1,
2006)
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.
______________________________________________
And
my comments below sent to the Hindustan Times
Mr. Vir
Sanghvi's article on illegal migration of Bangladeshis is yet another
attempt to diffuse the menace to sheer nothingness. He claims there are 10
million of these migrants (because 30 million cannot be backed up by
statistics). How does he then back up his 10 million figure. Maybe there
are none, Mr.Sanghvi!
In all his analyes, Mr. Sanghvi has not
mentioned Assam or the other Northeast states even once. The illegal
immigration problem is a major issue in these states. He mentions Mumbai,
West Bengal and even Delhi, but is totally unaware of where the actual
problem lies. It is in Assam, Mr. Sanghvi. So, please make it a point to
visit the state, and see for yourself, and do brush up on your research.
The biggest problem in Assam is that the Assamese are fast becoming a
minority in their own state. The state is inundated by illegals, and this
has been continuing for at least the last 50 + years. It is not just low
paying menial jobs that are stake here. The whole geo-political situation
in Assam (and other adjoining states) is rapidly changing. The local
languages, cultures, and religious affiliations are vanishing fast and
being replaced by this migrant menace.
Huge migrant populations also
tax precious government resources. Many of these migrants have close ties
with Pakistan's ISI and other undesirable elements.
Politicians
don't seem to care as they depend on vote banks from this group. But
true-blooded Indians should. Where is their sense of protecting national
boundaries?
It is extremely important for all Indians to look at this
problem seriously.
Yes, deportation proceedings for illegals should
follow the rule of law, and it should not be left to the local Delhi or
Mumbai police.
It is the sole responsibility of the Central Government
to stem the migration and it must dealt with promptly.
People like Mr.
Sanghvi seem to have just got wind of the problem because they see a few
migrants in Delhi or Mumbai. It is high time the powers that be in Delhi
and reponsible journalists wake up to the fact that India has been under a
silent attack for the past so many decades. Just don't wait till the
problem reaches your doorsteps in Mumbai and Delhi.
The problem is so
acute, that there is a very good chance for states like Assam becoming a
part of Bangladesh, for all practical purposes, in the near future. Is
that what the rest of India want?
Sincerely,
Ram
Sarangapani
Houston, USA
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