Ticking Alien Bomb

As the foreign nationals issue has assumed serious proportions, NESO is demanding a white paper with a time bound action plan.

‘ALIEN BOMB’ is ticking once again. NESO, the North East Students’ Organisation wants Delhi to publish a White Paper with a roadmap on detection and deportation of unwanted guests. It is threatening a mass movement across the region if the Centre fails to offer a time bound solution.

Infiltration is a sensitive issue even in normal times. More so in these days of surcharged emotions. Will the region be engulfed in a new fire…? The key to the question is as much in the hands of Centre as in the hands of NESO. NESO is not a new organisation. It has been around for a while offering a platform to eight student bodies: All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Khasi Students’ Union (KSU), Garo Students’ Union (GSU), All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), Naga Students’ Federation (NSF), All Manipur Students’ Union (AMSU), Mizo Zirlai Pawl (MZP) and Twipra Students’ Federation (TSF) There are reasons for NESO to be angry. A decade ago, in 1992 April to be more precise, the regional student body, presented a charter of demands to Prime Minister P. V.Narasimha Rao. It met with deafening silence. A year or so ago Union Home Minister L. K. Advani spoke about work permits for foreign nationals (a euphemism for Bangladeshi flocking to this region). There was no follow up. The proposal appears to have had a premature death. What does NESO want? # A comprehensive study by a parliamentary team of the social, economic and political dimensions of the inflow of the foreigners and illegal migrants # A policy of Three D’s and one C:  detection, deletion (from voters list) and deportation; Check strictly on new inflows. # Scrap the Illegal Migrants (determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983. Deport the illegal aliens under the Foreigners’ Act 1946. “The North-East, Assam and Tripura in particular”, NESO conveyed to Rao, “was made the dumping ground of displaced foreign nationals ever since Independence and the tension arising thereof has been a major cause of discontent for 20 years now. For reason best known to Government of India, no policy decision has been evolved till date and the influx continues. Today, the sheer number of illegal immigrants in all the North-Eastern states threatens to undermine our societies – socially, culturally, economically, and above all, politically. Yet the Government of India stands mute, without initiating any concrete policy or action.” Visionary poet Ambikagiri Roy Chowdhury spoke of these dangers in the thirties. And his words have had a prophetic ring. “Unchecked migration of East Bengal Bengalis (particularly from Sylhet) will have a destabilising effect on Assam and its economy. It may lead to creation of a bilingual Assam.”

History bears testimony to what he had visualised. Assam is no longer the same old self. India has always been a good host to refugees. Before Independence and after Independence. Past five decades saw wave after wave of refugees flocking to Indian borders for succour and shelter. From East and West Pakistan, Afghanistan, China, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, Southern Africa, people have poured into India. North-East has been the recipient of people migrating from Bangladesh, China, Nepal and Myanmar. That is because of its close proximity to the affected areas. No other region has had become home to so many aliens. For every one officially allowed to come in, there are at least a couple of hundred who quietly slipped in from the across the borders, upsetting the demography, economy and to certain extent politics. Today, the situation in some places has reached a stage where the outsiders either outnumber the locals or fast threatening to overtake them. Tripura can no longer be considered as a tribal State; non-tribal are now in majority. Like wise, in Assam, the number of non-Assamese speaking people is on the rise. It is obvious that the indigenous people can no longer remain indifferent. Protest against the outsiders is not a new to the North-East. The most documented protest is of course of AASU campaign against foreign nationals that shook the country in the seventies. It was the first organised protest against the foreign nationals. It highlighted the concern over and gravity of the problem like nothing else. And for the first time it demonstrated the people power to dictate the course of events. That the Mahanta-Phukan- Bora combine failed to live unto their promise is a different story. Sad story indeed.

AASU movement gave birth to many small and localised campaigns in other neighbouring states. These have not met with any spectacular success, though they served the limited purpose of putting the authorities on notice about the alien bomb ticking away silently. According to NESO, influx of aliens has taken a serious turn in Meghalaya, particularly Garo Hills. Intruders had killed a teacher M Sangma of Boldamgre High School on May 30; all those working as teachers but hailing from outside areas had fled the area with fear in their face. School exams were postponed as a result in at Boldamgre and its adjacent areas. Tension has gripped the area. Nagaland is facing a different social problem. Many of the illegal aliens often try to marry the local girls and thus secure social sanction for their unwanted stay in the state. The Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) is quick to see the dangers in store. It said Naga girls who marry outsiders should not be allowed to acquire property in the State.

Says N. S. N. Lotha, NSF adviser: “We have already imposed a ban on Naga girls marrying illegal migrants from Bangladesh. We are trying to strictly enforce the ban. Let us see how far we succeed. Our NSF motto is Naga by blood and not by adoption. The Nagaland cabinet has also adopted the same line. For us in the NSF, the cut off date for detection and deportation is 1963”. Lotha wants Assam to mount vigil on the borders to check influx into the region. “The root of the problem is in Assam. The aliens enter India through Assam, manage to make papers of Indian citizenship from places like Karimganj, Nagaon, Golaghat and Sivasagar and arrive at Dimapur. The influx has assumed menacing proportion in Niuland area of our State”. Once in Nagaland, the alien has no problem in getting a job mostly as a domestic help. Within a month of landing the job, the alien brings his family and their numbers swells. The bachelor immigrants, however, try to marry the local girls. The security of a job with them acts as a bait in the state reeling under unemployment, according to NSF leaders, who are worried over increasing instance of clashes between the Nagas and illegal migrants. As the immigrants cannot acquire land because of the Inner Line Permit system, they often buy land in the name of their Naga wives.

There is another social dimension to alien-Naga marriage. “The children of the immigrants, who marry local girls, are often referred to as Sumias and this trend has posed a serious threat to Naga social life and culture. These children are also confused about the religion they should adopt. In most cases, they are given Naga names. So, they cannot be detected by the authorities concerned when they apply for advantages like jobs, which are meant only for the indigenous people of Nagaland. Since the illegal migrants manage to obtain citizenship documents in Assam, the Government of Nagaland often finds it very difficult to identify them. To over come this hiccup, the Governments of Nagaland and Assam should work out modalities to cross check the documents of the illegal migrants, avers NSF leader Lotha. Commenting on the steps taken by the NSF for the solution of the problem, Lotha said that efforts are on to create social awareness in Nagaland about the dignity of labour to prevent the Nagas from engaging the  illegal migrant for low paid works particularly as domestic help. Kohima Village Council has already adopted a resolution saying that no Naga person should give on rent their houses to the illegal migrants. Other village councils are expected to follow the lead. One suggestion that is being tossed around is Nagaland Government should form a committee with the indigenous Muslim community leaders to identify illegal migrants, who are mostly Muslim. NSF has been demanding extension of the Inner Line Permit system to the entire state and strict enforcement of its provisions. On its part the state government has taken serious note of the problem; Inner Line Permit system has been computerised so that all records of the persons entering the State are readily available.

Problem in Arunachal Pradesh has a different dimension but the bottom-line message is same. The All Arunachal Pradesh Students’ Union (AAPSU), has warned the Union Government in general and the Election Commission in particular of serious consequences of voting rights to the Hajong-Chakma refugees settled in the state since in 1964. When they were brought in as a temporary measure, their number was 4,000. Now it is around one lakh. Voting right to them will upset the entire system in Arunachal, warns AAPSU. Voluntary Arunachal Senaa has expressed serious concern at the growing population of Bangladeshis in the State. Almost 10,000 Bangladeshi infiltrators are said to be entering Itanagar every year. Says Y Karbi, a VAS activist, the law enforcing authorities must remain alert against forged ILP and deport any person with forged ILP. Mizoram Census of Myanmarees MIZORAM Government has undertaken a census of foreigners living in the eight districts of the State. For the purpose, nodal officers have been appointed in all the districts. Their findings will give inputs for policy formulation and security drill.

Tens of thousands of Myanmarese nationals have illegally migrated to Mizoram especially from the Chin Hills over the years. They are mainly ethnic Mizos. While only a few – around 40-have sought political asylum for fear of persecution by the military junta in Myanmar, many of them have come for doing small business in Myanmarese goods.

Police said a large number of infiltrators were indulging in criminal activities like drug trafficking, gun-running and smuggling.Myanmarese were responsible for about 80 per cent of crimes committed in the State. One latest crime rape of a minor girl by a Myanmarese national in Aizawl on July 17 has created a big furore.  Several localities in Aizawl served quit notices on these Myanmarese aliens. Reports say the notices had set in motion a mass exodus. At least 3, 081 Myanmarese nationals including 1,626 women reportedly crossed Mizoram-Myanmar border river Tiau and returned Myanmar. Many Mizos feel that the treatment meted out to the Myanmarese nationals by some localities was too harsh as majority of these foreigners, though illegally staying in the State, were ethnic Mizos.

Home Minister   R Tlanghmingthanga convened a meeting of home department and police officials on the check xenophobic movements in the State. He made appeals to the people to maintain restraint, respect rule of law and human dignity and human rights despite any provocation.

Mizoram to deploy more cops on Myanmar border

Mizoram Government has decided to deploy more police personnel at the Mizoram-Myanmar border hamlet of Zokhawthar even as mass exodus of the Myanmarese nationals continued. One additional section of second battalion of Indian Reserve Police would soon be deployed at border to check illegal infiltration from Myanmar. Union Ministry of Home Affairs, in its notification on September 26, 1950 allowed free movement of citizens of both India and Myanmar within 40 kilometres on both sides of the border with permits and without passports or visas. Meanwhile, Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents of Police of all the eight districts in the State were conducting census of foreigners in the State and instructions were given to ensure that the census figure should reach the district headquarters on or before August 25. The situation in Mizoram is tense. The rape of a minor girl by a Myanmarese national, is the root cause of tension.