When the era of globalization arrived in the early Nineties an enticing hope was that borders would eventually be dismantled and the world would become a global village. Such hopes were short-lived. Practical difficulties began to surface. Even in trade and commerce, the first few steps taken in this direction by nations like the US failed to sustain and some are being reversed of late. In this context, India is well-advised to firm up its stand on illegal migration, mainly from Bangladesh, in recent decades. However, this clearly poses a huge humanitarian crisis. Governments cannot ignore the perils that their actions would bring upon hapless humans. It is then advisable that a balancing is struck between national interests and humanitarian concerns. So too with Assam and its National Register of Citizens (NRC).
Illegal migrations have been the bane of Assam and the issue had figured prominently in the epoch-making agitation by the All Assam Students Union (AASU), leading to the signing of the Assam Accord by the Centre, the Assam government and the AASU in 1985. While the accord promised that the NRC would be updated, the process carried on for decades.
The intervention of the Supreme Court in 2009 gave a much-needed momentum to the process, and its culmination came in the form of the release of the second and final draft list of the applicants who have
been found eligible for citizenship. Nearly 2.89 crore people would benefit from this, but the fact is also that some 40 lakh applicants, ostensibly migrants are left out. They have nothing to prove that the families have settled down in India before the cut-off year of 1971, the time when the Liberation struggle against West Pakistan’s dominance started in erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. On the positive side, this is only the draft list, and amendments are allowed.
Notably, Assam is the only state that has a National Registry of Citizens, and this system came into being in 1951. The issue of illegal migrations in the state has both economic and political implications. While indigenous Assamese feel their opportunities for jobs and social well-being are curtailed by the massive migrations, at the core of this desperation is the slow pace of economic growth of the state. If the growth rate had speeded up to appreciable levels, the disquiet among the natives could perhaps have subsided. This goes to show that the North-East region needs special attention from the Centre to accelerate the growth process.