Crackdown against illegal immigrants has to follow due process

Indian Express

2 days ago

In the wake of the brutal terrorist attack on Pahalgam, the government has done the right thing by heightening security across the country. It has intensified operations against terrorists and given greater urgency to increasing surveillance along the borders. Last month, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs issued an order asking states and Union Territories to detect and deport foreigners, especially people from Bangladesh and Myanmar, living illicitly in the country. The Centre's instructions have prompted several states to intensify their ongoing operations against suspected illegal immigrants. From the West Bengal government's allegation, earlier this year, of BSF's laxity against Bangladeshi 'infiltrators' to Delhi's erstwhile AAP government's drive against 'illegal Bangladeshi' students to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's frequent diatribes against immigrants from India's eastern neighbour, the issue of illegal immigration has raised its head time and again in the heat and dust of Indian politics. The Centre and state governments must understand that the current moment has a far more compelling imperative than polarising politics — the two should be kept scrupulously apart. However, reports in this newspaper shine a light on the disquieting tendency among authorities to ignore court proceedings — and take the short cut bypassing due process. Among the people caught in the no man's land between India and Bangladesh is an Assam school teacher whose citizenship case is being heard by the Supreme Court. And, days ago, a 50-year-old woman was pushed into Bangladesh and then brought back after her lawyer flagged that she was legally in the clear.
In Assam and several other regions of the Northeast, the movement of people across the mostly porous border across Bangladesh is an immensely sensitive and fraught issue. On the one hand, the movement of people across regions has a long history that predates Partition. On the other hand, the anti-outsider sentiment was the major trigger for the Assam agitation and has often led to violence in the state. In recent years, the state's BJP government has stoked anxieties around identity and demography by framing the narrative in communal terms. The state government's aggressive use of the Foreigner's Tribunal – it sets March 25, 1971, as the cut-off date for citizenship in Assam – has left thousands with an uncertain future. The onus is almost always on the accused to prove their citizenship. Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma has cited a Supreme Court directive of February in support of the latest anti-immigration drive. However, Sarma's past pronouncements — especially his use of dog whistles, 'land jihad' and 'flood jihad,' to refer to the migrant problem — do not inspire confidence. The Assam CM has said that the recent drive does not target people who have appealed to the courts after the revocation of their nationality by a tribunal. Last week, however, the Gauhati High Court had to intercede on behalf of two such people, whose families fear that they may have been 'pushed out' to Bangladesh.
That Myanmar and Bangladesh are in political turmoil today doesn't make the task any easier. That should not, however, be the rationale for rounding off suspected illegal migrants and pushing them across borders. On immigration crackdown, the short-cut will always be more expedient — most of the victims are vulnerable and without adequate representation — but due process, even if it is a long haul, needs to be followed and seen to be followed. Only then will it engender a security that endures.