This story is from August 28, 2012

Of Indian minorities & illegal migrants

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The violence in Assam is clearly cause for grave concern, and no one will deny that our minorities need solace, understanding and protection from aggression. But irrespective of who was the aggressor, the Bodos in refugee camps may feel aggrieved that the nation does not understand their anguish in being refugees in their own beloved land, which has nourished them for hundreds of years.
The Bodos were one of the earliest settlers in the region. As the scholar Suniti Kumar Chatterjee writes "the great Bodo people" were spread over the entire Brahmaputra Valley and north Bengal as well as East Bengal, and in fact were the most important Indo-Mongoloid people in eastern India. Violence is not an option, and nothing can justify or condone violence. Yet, if a lasting solution has to be found the nation must try to understand the agony that drives these people with an illustrious history to acts of violence.
In the context of Assam it is essential to be wary of overlooking the difference between Indian minorities and illegal migrants. Assam is very proud of its secular tradition and outlook, notwithstanding aberrations. The tolerant humanism of Sankardeva still has relevance. The religious harmony exemplified by Ajan Fakir still echoes in the zikirs sung in far corners of Assam by Hindus and Muslims alike. I often narrate my experience of studying in a maktab school, which had a madrassa in the same compound and a headmaster who was a devout Hindu Brahmin.
The influx of illegal migrants who may not share this liberal ethos has tended to create fissures in the integrated matrix of Assamese society. The inability or unwillingness to accept this has grave portents.
Lately, there have been worrying indicators of the possibility of the Assam Accord of 1985 being revisited, to adapt it to "present conditions". The statement is vague and worryingly open to interpretations.
The Assam Accord's heart and soul is Clause 5, relating to the detection and deportation of illegal migrants. Two interpretations of the President's statement are possible. First, the Accord has not achieved the objective and therefore practical methods of achieving detection and deportation should be devised. Second, much water has flown down the Brahmaputra. Things have changed, many more illegal migrants have added to the millions who had entered in the past. It is not possible, pragmatic or just to deport them. Therefore some alternatives must be thought of.
In almost 30 years only a handful — the ridiculous figure of 1,700 illegal migrants was mentioned — have been officially deported. As such thinking of another solution could be seen as pragmatic. But the people of Assam would see that as a betrayal. This is more so because nothing tangible has been done on the other core clause of the Accord, Clause 6 — to "protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people".
Ironically it is the composite Assamese society that is asking for protection for its survival. Misplaced fear of harassment of Indian Muslims has acted as the impregnable shield for illegal migrants, frustrating the Accord's implementation. The infamous Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal Act (IMDT) was the result of such an apprehension.
In a meeting between the Assam government and Rajiv Gandhi, then prime minister, on the implementation of the Accord, the late Dinesh Goswami had explained the absurdity of the IMDT Act. If a person suspected to be a foreigner was detected in, say, Burnihat in Meghalaya, 20 km from the Assam capital, under the Foreigners Act applicable to the whole country he would be asked to prove his citizenship. If he failed to do so, he could be summarily deported.
If the same person was detected in the Assam capital 20 km away, under the IMDT Act the police would have to establish he was a foreigner. The case would then be examined by a screening committee. Thereafter it would go to a tribunal of retired high court judges. After that, the person could appeal to an appellate tribunal.
Rajiv Gandhi had appreciated the flawed logic. He had suggested to P Chidambaram, then minister of state for home, that the possibility of a just, fair and uniform foreigner's law for the whole country — that treated a foreigner as a foreigner irrespective of religion — be examined. Is the President talking of such a revisit?
Finally, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi's statement that the state is sitting on a volcano is pregnant with implications. In the Kokrajhar context, the militancy of some Bodo groups has been part of Assam's recent history. While deplorable, it should not be the cause of new concern. Is it the new-found militancy of illegal migrants that Gogoi finds ominous? Is it the blurring of the identity of Assam's traditional and bona fide minorities with illegal migrants? Is it the breaking down of the ethos of a secular Assamese society, one where sub-identities used to be secondary?
Kokrajhar represents a microcosm of Assam's problems. It is a problem of taking care of aspirations and grievances of every section of a multicultural, multilingual society, looking into apprehensions of minorities with understanding and compassion, adjusting the rights of the majority with the aspirations of the minority, and of statesmanship that creates an atmosphere of collaboration and not confrontation. Assam and India deserve that much.
The author is a retired IAS officer. He served as Assam's home secretary as well as secretary for Implementation of the Assam Accord.
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