“The controversy over citizens’ register in Assam is likely to persist in India until 2019 elections.”

India’s ruling party seizes illegal Muslim immigrants’ issue to stoke xenophobia and enhance poll prospects

Ever since former saffron stalwart Arun Shourie created a stir in India in the 1980s with his articles on illegal immigrants in Assam comprising Bangladeshi Muslims, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) saw it as an excellent issue to improve its nationalist credentials by portraying the “aliens” as a security threat. The depiction also fitted in with the party’s anti-Muslim worldview. The latest row over the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state can be regarded as a continuation of the anti-foreigner agitation by the All Assam Students Union (Aasu) in the 1980s, although the lead has now been taken by the BJP while its ally in the state government, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the Aasu’s successor, maintains a low profile.

There is no simple solution. Assam has long been a province of immigrants with the tea plantation workers brought in from the tribal areas of Bihar by the colonial rulers, and the “hardy” peasants of erstwhile East Bengal (now Bangladesh) were encouraged to settle down in the state in the pre-partition period to cultivate the land. The state has since become a mosaic of various communities, including its tribals.

Untangling the medley of the diverse ethnic groups is fraught with the likelihood of inciting strife, although West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s outburst about a “civil war” and a “bloodbath” are an overstatement. Her objective is to consolidate her pro-Muslim and “liberal” supporters — given her prime ministerial ambitions. The detection and deportation of “foreigners” mandated by the Assam accord of 1985 is likely to end in violence, and this possibility has hampered the implementation of the central point of the agreement. The volatility stresses the need to proceed with caution.

BJP president Amit Shah has virtually disenfranchised the four million by dubbing them “ghuspetias” (infiltrators) while the Advocate General has told the Supreme Court that their biometric data will be collected so that they do not settle in other states. The BJP leaders are also talking of similar headcounts in other states, especially West Bengal, which is home to a substantial number of Bangladeshi infiltrators.

The final report has yet to be prepared, but the BJP is using the exercise to raise the fear of the nation being overrun by aliens, while its opponents feel the fear factor will drive the minorities towards “secular” parties. For both groups, the hapless individuals are nothing but electoral fodder.

It is tough to distinguish the Muslims of Bangladesh from the Muslims of Assam since there is little difference in dialect and lifestyle. And the documents are not always reliable. Since the focus is on Bengali speakers, Bengali Hindus too are frightened as it evokes bitter memories of the anti-Bengali riots in Assam in the 1960s. Some of them fled to West Bengal during the anti-foreigner agitation of 1979-85. The BJP also pays no heed to Bangladesh’s refusal to accept those who will be evicted from India since that will detract from its political propaganda.

The presence of “aliens” cannot be wished away. A group of ministers chaired by the then Union home minister, L.K. Advani, in 2001 had proposed work permits, which would be their only valid document. That won’t allow them to vote and hence cannot constitute a “vote bank” of any party. Illegal immigration stokes xenophobia around the world. So “nationalist” parties are only too keen to derive mileage from it. The controversy is likely to persist in India at least till the 2019 general election.

■ Amulya Ganguli is a political analyst based in India.

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