Row over illegal immigration

As another election is knocking at the door it is time now for all major political parties and student unions in Assam to fish in trobled waters. Thus, the recent exodus of suspected Bangladeshis from different parts of the state has become a big issue. The All Assam Students' Union (AASU) and Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) brought up the issue of exodus of suspected Bangladeshis following an SMS by Chiring Chapori Yuva Morcha to socio-economically boycott them as a 'spontaneous reflection' of the local people who felt threatened by the continuous influx from across the border. On the other hand, the All Assam Minority Students' Union (AAMSU) and Assam Madrasa Students' Union (AMSA) accused the ruling Congress for its 'failure' to protect the minority Muslims in the wake of such development. AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharyya told the media that the exodus was a manifestation of national sentiment against illegal migrants which was latent for a long time.

The illegal migrants were threatening the demographic character of the state and successive state governments had failed to check this problem, he said. The ASSU made its stand clear that whoever had entered Assam after March 25, 1971, should be detected and deported without delay. The AASU was also vocal against the prevailing Illegal Migrants Determination (IMDT) act of 1983, meant for the detection and deportation of illegal migrants as the Act 'in reality' was helping the continuous stay of infiltrators. However the official record had put the number of deported persons at a little over 2,000 in the past 21 years under IMDT. But it was Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who recently refused to repeal the Act as Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was also in favour of retaining IMDT.

The ABVP also viewed the recent exodus as the outburst of the suppressed feelings of the original Assamese people who were victims of the alleged minority appeasement policy of the Congress in the name of its vote-bank politics. All suspected Bangladeshis, who left upper and central Assam districts, took shelter at minority dominated lower Assam districts on the Bangladesh border. Contrary to the stand taken by the AASU and ABVP, the AAMSU and AMSA defended all those minority Muslim wage labourers who had fled from different parts of the state. AAMSU president Naziruddin Ahmed told the media that AAMSU had never opposed the idea of detection and deportation of illegal migrants who had arrived after March 25, 1971. The AAMSU, along with AMSA, have called a dawn-to-dusk Assam bandh on May 24 to protest the alleged psychological torture of poor minority Muslims forcing them to desert their places of work in the name of being suspected Bangladeshis. The AAMSU and AMSA charged the ruling Congress with failing to protect the minority Muslims from being harassed as promised during the 2001 Assembly polls. Meanwhile, All India Students Federation (AISF) Dibrugarh unit president Subhas Dutta demanded that the Congress should detect and deport all Illegal migrants who had entered the state after 1971. The AISF also demanded immediate fencing of the border with Bangladesh to check infiltration. Recently, in its report the National Commission of Minorities (NCM) expressed concern over the abnormal rise in Muslim population in border districts, particularly in lower Assam, compared to other districts of the state.

Denying any involvement in the recent economic boycott of Bangladeshi citizens and their exodus from Dibrugarh district in Assam, BJP Assam unit president Indromoni Bora said Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi was leveling baseless allegations against the BJP, RSS and BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan in particular.''It is unbecoming of a chief minister to make such comments against an organisation like the RSS. Mr Gogoi should read about the RSS and then comment''.''The allegation that Mr Mahajan was behind the exodus of the Bangladeshis puts us in doubt about the credibility of his intelligence agencies,'' he said.The Chief Minister alleged that the BJP, RSS and Mr Mahajan worked in tandem ''to create a fear psychosis in upper Assam to harass genuine Indian Muslim citizens''.

''We are not against Indian Muslims, rather we expect them to help our drive against Bangladeshi citizens. We support the economic boycott call given by a local youth organisation but we would never go to the extent alleged by Mr Gogoi,'' said BJP spokesman Ashok Singhal.

  Mr Bora alleged that the Congress was worried over the sudden development of the Bangladeshi issue, which was fast spinning out of control as the people were supporting the spontaneous movement.''If it was harassment of Indian citizens, then why wasn't there a single complaint in any police station of upper Assam,'' he demanded. ''It was all a Congress game,'' he said.

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