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Immigrant
Bogeyman
The Times of India
(Editorial)
14 July 2005
Why India should have a
common labour market with Bangladesh
Fast-growing India
should create a common labour market with Bangladesh instead of carping
about ‘illegal’ migrants coming from across the eastern border. Why is
it that we have an open border with Nepal, across which people are free
to travel, whereas we clamp down on workers coming from Bagladesh? The
answer is obvious ‘Communalism’. Nepal is assumed to be ‘Hindu’ kingdom
while Bangladesh is assumed to be exporter of Muslim ‘terrorists’. Ergo,
Nepali immigrants are good while Bangladeshi are suspected subversives.
The most recent fatuous generalization is the Bengal Chief Minister
Buddadeb Bhattarcharya. Talking to a group of paramilitary officers he
said that there are three kinds of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh-
terrorist, subversives and operatives of the outlawed Kamtapur
Liberation Army (KLA). Of course, nothing could be further, from the
truth: the vast majority of people that came from Bangladesh are day
labourers and petty traders. But if a supposedly progressive chief
minister can get away with stuff like this, why get surprised when
sectarian outfits like the Asom Gana Parishad or the BJP campaign to
drive suspected Bangladeshis out of Bengal and Assam?
For about five years,
Assam politics turned on violent xenophobia. In 1983, after the Assam
accord, New Delhi legislated the Illegal Migrants Determination by
Tribunal (IMDT) Act. A tribunal was supposed to settle the controversy
over who was an illegal migrant. Twenty-two years later, the Supreme
Court has thrown out the Act as unconstitutional. The AGP and the BJP
are crowing with glee: At last local goons will be able to target
vulnerable people, label them as illegal Bangladeshis and create
communal trouble – just before elections in 2006. India has just passed
through six years of NDA rule, which stoked tensions among the religious
groups and culminated in the Gujarat pogrom. We cannot afford the
hate-filled politics of xenophobia any more. There are better things to
do like building a better future for our people. In real terms, India
today is the fourth largest economy in the world. Its economy is robust
and it has managed to sort out huge social and economic problems
relatively little strife. The government should realize that illegal
Bangladeshis bogey is a euphemism for violent communalism. It should
open up India’s borders to Bangladeshi workers. |
