Is Another Wave of Asylum Seekers Afoot?: Ziauddin Choudhury

Is another wave of asylum seekers afoot?
Ziauddin Choudhury
The rhetoric of an imminent expulsion of the so-called illegal migrants from neighboring state of Assam
in India has been on the horizon for many years. For last few years this rhetoric from Assam politicians
has been morphing into a threat giving rise to a fear in Bangladesh if the threat should turn into a
reality.
Until recently, that is the publication of draft National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam which
excluded approximately four million of Assam residents out of a total of thirty-three million from the
register, the cry for ouster of the so-called illegal residents was really rhetorical. The genesis of this cry is
in the historic Assam movement by Assamese Students against illegal migration that lasted over six
years (1979-84) targeting actually Bengali migrants from then East Bengal (later East Pakistan and then
Bangladesh) over decades of years. Although much of this migration had taken place at the behest of
the British overlords because Assam was under populated with vast cultivable lands--Assam has since
been divided into six states—the resentment of the Assamese students was mostly directed to relatively
newer migrants, specially after March 1971. The agitations somewhat ceased after the famous Assam
Accord with central government intervention in 1985 that called for a cutoff date of 1966 for all
migrants into Assam, and detection and deportation of migrants into Assam from anywhere after that
year.
The implementation of the Assam Accord was not transparent, and in most cases not feasible for
political reasons. For one thing, Assam had and still has the highest Muslim population among Indian
states (about 34% now). Nine of Assam’s thirty-two districts have Muslim majority. Since a large chunk
of the so-called illegals comprised Muslims, their detection and deportation from mostly Muslim
districts posed a political problem for the parties that drew their votes from Muslim population. Second,
for much of its history Assam government has been formed by the Indian Congress that has a secular
approach to politics and has drawn support from Muslims. Until last elections in 2016 when BJP won
majority seats in Assam Assembly the issue of detection and deportation of illegal migrants was not on
the front burner of the Assamese government.
BJP had made immigration and fight against illegal migrants a major election issue in 2016. It won
majority seats in Assamese State elections keeping implementation of Assam Accord of 1985 a central
issue. However, implementation of “detection and deportation” of illegals was not a straight law and
order issue. It was more complicated than that.
The resolution of this thorny subject came in the form of NRC that gave the Assamese government a
“legal” way to identify the illegals. Although NRC was first established in 1951 and has continued in its
original state all over India, the impetus for its update came from a Supreme Court mandate in 2015.
The BJP formed government in Assam found it convenient to be one of the first states in India to update
the NRC in Assam, and in that process throw out about four million of its residents from the Register.
Unfortunately, almost all of those who fell out of NRC happened to be Muslims. Where are these
unlucky people to be sent? Bangladesh? Pakistan?
Just because people who did not find their names in NRC do not make them illegals. It turned out that
many of those excluded from NRC had close relatives (parents, children, uncles) were in the Register. It
is reported that family members of an ex- President of India were excluded from the list. There are other
similar instances where some members of a family have been put in the register and others not.
The whole commotion over this NRC and fear of an imminent ouster or deportation of four million
residents would not have occurred had these residents not all been Muslims. A suspicion genuinely
arises in the mind of those affected by this publication of NRC and in neighboring Bangladesh (which is
still dealing with the traumatic Rohingya crisis) that this is a targeted action against a minority.
Both Assam Government and the Central Government in India have declared that the current list is not
final, and that there is a process of appeal by which those left out can still have an opportunity to
establish their claim to citizenship. Whether it is rectified by appeal or by an act of indemnity it is still
difficult to imagine that this exclusion of such a large section of population from citizenship can happen
only by accident, and the state legislators are watching this silently.
Of the 132 members in Assam Legislative Assembly 28 are Muslim, and except two they all belong to
other political parties. At least these legislators ought to stand up and demand a through and
transparent registration process and citizenship criteria that obviate any dubious process to eliminate
people based on religion. Because today if it is religion tomorrow it may be language or ethnicity. If
Muslims are targeted today, what can prevent another movement against people because they are not
ethnically Assamese or Assamese speaking?
Currently there is a bill before the Indian Parliament seeking amendment to Indian Citizenship Act of
1955. A key amendment in the bill seeks to grant citizenship to people without valid documents from
minority communities – Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians–from Afghanistan,
Bangladesh and Pakistan after six years of residence in India. (Birth does not confer automatic
citizenship in India). But this bill does not please the Assamese because it will allow Hindu migrants from
Bangladesh after March 25, 1971 legal status in Assam. In other words, if Muslims can be excluded now,
Hindus from Bangladesh can be excluded also later, if the Amendment does not happen.
It is conceivable that the Assam government will reverse its policy and revise the NRC to include those
left out of NRC and allay the fears pf its citizens. It is also conceivable that the Central Government will
intervene and ask the State government for a compromise for the greater good of the country. What is
inconceivable however, is the deportation of four million of Indian citizens on spurious charges of illegal
migration after decades of residency in the country.
India is a vast country that is home to just not Hindus, but Muslims who account for nearly fifteen
percent of its population. Its Muslim population is the third highest in the world. Turning away or
disenfranchisement of a vast number of this population will be politically wrong and suicidal. That too in
a state where one third of the population consists of people from this community. We hope saner sense
will prevail both in Assam government and India that will lead to a satisfactory solution of this man-
made crisis.

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