Despite West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee’s warming-up to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at an official-level meeting in New Delhi the other day, it is clear that the ice has not been broken. Rather, the scenario for a new confrontation between the Centre and the West Bengal CM is building up, if Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s word on implementation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in West Bengal is any indication.
Chief Minister Banerjee and her ruling Trinamool Congress have assured the people that no immigrant to West Bengal from Bangladesh will be thrown out despite the Central move to introduce NRC. Amit Shah’s stress at a rally in Kolkata on Tuesday was that all illegal migrants would be pushed out of India. However, he has qualified this with a promise that no Hindu, Sikh, Jain, Buddhist or Christian will be thrown out. The hint is that only Muslim population from Bangladesh or elsewhere who came in and settled down will be evicted. Prima facie, there is double standard, which is not acceptable in a democratic nation. At the same time, the issue of illegal migration is real, and this scenario has played havoc with lives in Assam and other states adjoining Bangladesh.
The painful partition of East Pakistan and formation of Bangladesh in the mid-1970s created a humanitarian situation and India was sympathetic towards the influx of people escaping the torture of Pakistani soldiers who tried to suppress the independence movement. West Bengal bore the brunt of such influx, which continued even after Bangladesh settled down to peace and democratic governance. Kolkata, the main commercial hub in eastern India, drew the largest number of refugees during the 1970s. The porous borders between India and Bangladesh, which was mostly unmanned by security forces, helped in this influx. Large numbers of Bangladeshis are now living and working in various parts of India where skilled and unskilled labour markets have demand for human resources. Many of these have lived in India through generations, and many have no documents to prove their Indian credentials. They are set to fall in a trap now and face the prospect of being deported.
The first Modi government at the Centre had acted in a responsible manner vis-à-vis effecting controls on India-Bangladesh border and to ensure that there is no more of a free flow of people to either side. At the same time, hope is that it would handle the NRC with sufficient care.