The BJP came to power on the premise of giving citizenship to Hindus who are persecuted in other countries, but more so in Bangladesh, from where people have constantly flowed in to the North Eastern states of Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Manipur to an extent. The above three states share a porous border with Bangladesh. India is not a Hindu nation and it is surprising that a plea be made to accommodate Hindus persecuted elsewhere, in this country. India already has a burgeoning population whose basic needs are yet to be met. More inflow of migrants from other neighbouring countries will only exacerbate matters and disrupt the human development indices. Land is a scarce resource in the North Eastern states. In Assam there is already a resentment brewing against Bangladeshi Muslims who have allegedly infiltrated into the state from across the border incessantly for decades. These Bengali speaking Muslims have allegedly managed to procure papers to prove their citizenship. In a country where corruption ensures that Aadhar cards and even voter ID cards are made at will if one has the wherewithal and if politicians assist in this nefarious game, ensuring that infiltrators are detected becomes a huge challenge.
It is good that the Government of Meghalaya has rejected outright the proposed Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016. There can be no two ways about it. The BJP has an agenda to consolidate Hindu voters and is undertaking this present enterprise mainly to build its vote bank and to ensure that it returns to power in 2019. It is observed that politicians across states nurture people of dubious citizenship merely to ensure their own victory. Many constituencies in Meghalaya too have this dubious distinction. We only need to study the electoral rolls to know those constituencies and who the benefactors of these dubious voters are. Such MLAs have been voted in repeatedly. This is a dangerous trend and if not checked it may lead to another bout of ethnic cleansing.
