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Foreigners are Assam's perennial problem

Nothing changes in Guwahati, neither the lazy scene nor the over-pushed Assamese. Whenever I return to the city as I have been doing so for the last 40 years -- I find the echo of the same problems and same frustrations. The Assamese are vainly trying to retain their entity, which is eroding every day because of uninterrupted flow of "foreigners".

But the issue of "foreigners" is only a symptom, not the disease. The disease is their realisation that they are fighting a losing battle and that the nation is not even recognising it. They have seen Tripura and Sikkim going into the hands of people coming from across the border, pushing the indigenous population to the background. They fear they will meet the same fate. Their numbers are already down to 38 per cent in what is an Assamese-speaking state.

"Politicians think of elections but my eyes are fixed on the next generation," says Assam Governor retired Lieutenant General S K Sinha. His argument is that the Congress, for its electoral advantage, had encouraged migrants from East Pakistan to build a vote-bank. "I have told the President and central leaders that large-scale migration from across the border has altered the demographic complexion of the state and poses greater threat to the identity of the Assamese people and to our national security."

But he does not favour deportation. He wants the foreigners to be declared "stateless citizens". He is, however, confident that the border with Bangladesh will be fenced before long, like the one with Pakistan.

"It is no use doing it for Assam alone. West Bengal needs to be fenced too," he says. After 13 years, fencing is only half done in Assam and the work in West Bengal has not yet been scheduled. The governor concedes that officials accept bribes to help migration. In fact, he informed the President of it in a special report on infiltration in Assam.

While in Calcutta, I found the West Bengal government waking up to the problem. In the past, it used to dismiss such thinking as communal. But now the attitude has changed.

"We have to stop the migration," said a minister. The Communist Party of India-Marxist still rationalises that Bengalis from across the border are integrating well culturally with the Bengalis in West Bengal.

But there is quite a different reaction in Assam. One, the Assamese are purists when it comes to their culture. Two, the Bengalis have dominated them for so long -- the British brought the Bengalis for help in administration and construction of the railways -- that the Assamese are generally hostile to Bengalis. They see little difference between the Bengalis in India and those from Bangladesh. "There is nothing to choose between the two," says an Assamese professor.

"Our main problem is what to do with the (hundreds of thousands) of illegal migrations who are already within our state (roughly 4.5 million)," says Sonowal, outgoing president of the All-Assam Students Union. AASU's role is, indeed, important because it was the first to articulate the problem. It organised in the seventies a state-wide agitation to oust "foreigners". So effective was its call that hundreds of people courted arrest in response. I witnessed thousands of people defy curfew on the streets. The same people, at AASU's instance, observed blackouts -- even a single candle would not burn throughout the night.

AASU won the battle when then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi signed an accord with it. Illegal migrants were defined as those who infiltrated after December 24, 1971. However the stream that came in illegally between January 1, 1996 and December 24, 1971 was not to be deported and was to be given Indian citizenship after a lapse of 10 years.

It is a pity that the AASU leaders, who came to power after the Assam accord, did nothing to implement it. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was chief minister at that time. The political party the movement's supporters constituted to oust "foreigners", the Asom Gana Parishad, got embroiled in intrigue and corruption.

People in Assam have given them another chance but again they seem to be failing. But this time, Mahanta has a valid reason. He is in power because of the crucial support from MLAs elected by "foreigners".

"I cannot get through the Cabinet any measure which is aimed at disturbing the migrants," Mahanta admitted to me some time ago. Had his party stood by him, he would have probably tried to implement the accord. At present, his whole time -- and energy -- is consumed in mollifying the dissidents. And he still has to finalise a strategy to deal with the problem of foreigners.

Both he and AASU can, however, take credit for not allowing the problem becoming communal, something the BJP has been trying to do. The governor too says: "No doubt, Hindus required special consideration at the time of Partition and had to be treated as refugees, but this cannot be allowed to continue forever. Post-1971, Hindu illegal migrants cannot justifiably claim refugee status." The BJP's stand is that the Hindus from Bangladesh are refugees.

Indeed, the people of Assam have resisted various attempts to divide them as Hindus and Muslims. With all its poisonous propaganda, the communalists are not making any headway. Hindu and Muslim fundamentalist organisations have not given up their efforts to contaminate the atmosphere, but they are not succeeding. I have talked to many Assamese Muslims and found them equally determined to oust migrants from across the border. One Muslim leader said: "No patriotic Indian can allow the problems to continue."

Whenever I have broached the subject in Dhaka, there is no effort to push the problem beneath the carpet. People discuss it with all seriousness. But their plea is that Bangladeshis go in search of livelihood and that they do not want to settle in Assam or elsewhere in India. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, a friend of India, has said that there are no illegal Bangladeshis in India. The figures of ten million, mentioned by former Home Minister Inderjit Gupta, is very much resented and often challenged.

There is, however, some validity in the argument that the Bangladeshis provide cheap labour. The Assamese themselves admit it, adding that they are "hardworking chaps," It is an open secret that many Assamese hid their teenage domestic servants at the time of detection. Work permits, as Home Minister L K Advani has promised, may lessen the embarrassment.

The Indian government's home secretary, who recently visited Dhaka to discuss the problem, is happy with the outcome. Both countries will help each other stop cross-border migration. Perhaps the joint working group, constituted a few years ago, will begin working in finding a solution to illegal migrants.

Still, what about those who are on the voters' list illegally? The governor says that ousting "foreigners" is not feasible. Still some method has to be found whereby they do not influence the politics of Assam. To begin with, their names should be struck off the electoral rolls. Their status can be determined later.

If the problem is allowed to fester, Assam may be engulfed by violence. The insurgency by the United Liberation Front of Asom is losing support with people getting sick of the killings. They are in no way willing to endorse the ULFA's demand for secession. But if the Centre does not find a way whereby the Assamese can preserve their identity in the midst of "foreigners", it can become a difficult state to govern.

Kuldip Nayar