Editorial
The cases of “Illegal immigrants” are illegal and unjustified in diplomatic relations among the countries of the world. There are certain agreed assumptions regarding ‘the policy of immigration’ which is the prerogative of each sovereign country. It is a complex subject and depends upon the concerns of a particular nation to allow any immigrants on certain criteria, but in all respects they must fulfil those criteria officially. Thus immigration is always conditional and time bound and cent percent officially approved. ( Change of paragraph) Migration has been the fate of humanity in search of subsistence and a better place for survival where it finds appropriate since time immemorial. The case of Bangladeshi immigrants into India has been a flow-in stream since partition in 1947. But immigrants have their own concerns for the locals which were constantly affected by the undue favour of the State govt. The state governments of W. Bengal, Assam and Tripura have been considerate to the refugees and immigrants from Bangladesh who have been proved to be the considerable vote banks to the party in power till the inception of BJP in both the States. The undue favour to the immigrants by the govts has posted a constant threat to locals in all respects. The implementation of CAA and SIR has brought the issue of illegal immigrants of Bangladesh in the lime light recently following the policy of “Detect, Delete, Deport” by the new BJP- led Govt. in W Bengal and Assam.
Once a close worker and a star leader of Mamta Banerjee-TMC, Subhendu Adhikari, defected it in 2017 and joined BJP and determined to vindicate the dark side practices of TMC and thereby suffered the brunt of the TMC leadership but withstood in the backdrop of BJP central leadership. Before the assembly elections of the Bangladesh bordering States’ elections, the Election Commission of India initiated SIR and the reports found out thousands of immigrants with illegal documents of being citizens of India which were issued by the previous state govts. Thus thousands of names were deleted and they were denied to cast their votes in the recent assembly elections causing a major setback to Mamata-led TMC being reduced to 80 seats in the 294 assembly seats in W Bengal. The BJP won a flagrant 207 seats in the Assembly and Subhendu was sworn-in as the Chief Minister.
The Subhendu Govt. of W. Bengal is now bent upon sending the immigrants their home back and has issued the redline of 45 days for them to leave the State after proper verifications which has raised the eyebrows of Bangladeshi leadership and alleged it as ‘forced pushbacks’ and ‘unilateral deportation’ of immigrants raising the concern of repatriation agreement between both the countries and putting fencing on the border unilaterally etc.
Altogether, India has to filter and deport the illegal immigrants to secure the interests and welfare of its local citizens. Those who have merged their individual interests in the interests of the state are to be called “locals” and they can only enjoy the liberty to utilise the local resources for their sustenance and involve themselves in the prosperity of the State. This is not only the socio- economic concern but also has raised several cultural and political issues. It is ironic that immigrants rarely merge their interests into fostering countries in general.
Avtk. Anand Prabha Ac
