#dnaEdit: Good move

Now that it is in government, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has taken a positive stand on a critical border issue that has been hanging fire for years. Closely allied to this is also a matter for humanitarian consideration. The Modi Cabinet has cleared the Constitutional  Amendment Bill which is set to legalise the swapping of territories between India and Bangladesh. While in opposition, the BJP had resolutely opposed the India-Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement, arguing that it would not swap and inch of land with Bangladesh.

There are 111 Indian enclaves in Bangladesh and 70 Bangladeshi enclaves in India. With the BJP government at the Centre finally waking up to the urgency of resolving a problem that is not just of land but also of people, the matter will now be taken up in Parliament. Parliament’s approval is essential as it alters, however minutely, the boundaries of the country. 

Exchange of territory between adjacent countries is always a complicated issue. Political parties, especially those in opposition, are prone to turning such issues into matters of national pride, integrity and sovereignty. For many years, political parties on both sides — in India and in Bangladesh —  have not allowed the matter of enclaves to reach a resolution. This is one of the primary reasons for the inordinate delay in reaching a bilateral agreement. 

That the BJP is pushing for a final settlement is a positive sign because that would silence the right-wing nationalist elements who would otherwise have tried to stir a controversy around the settlement. At the heart of the exchange of enclaves is the fate of tens of thousands of people living in these enclaves on both sides of the border, without formal citizenship rights and limited access to basic services. The estimates of the total population in the enclaves on both sides vary widely from 50,000 to 500,000 people. Since the early 1950s, no formal censuses have been conducted in these enclaves. 

Their continued existence 60 years after their creation reveals the hold that the notion of territorial integrity has over the system. The irony is that even as the home countries make formal claims of sovereignty over their enclaves, these are effectively stateless spaces with tenuous contact with the home country; the administration of the host country virtually absent in these enclaves.  

Consider the terrible conditions under which the people in these enclaves live. Given that most enclaves have no form of government, few of the larger enclaves have set up their own local councils to conduct basic administrative work. The basic services customarily provided by a government are either completely absent or executed by the residents themselves. Without a public school system, many children have gone without education. Similarly, without a public works department, the few existing bridges are built by the residents. In the absence of hospitals and health clinics, many die of curable diseases like cholera. Without judicial and policing structures, vigilante justice is the only way to settle disputes.  Even the most basic infrastructure of electricity, telephones, and roads, which are widely available in the neighbouring areas of the host countries, is absent in the enclaves.

The challenge now confronting the BJP government is how to neutralise opposition from within its own house, to the long pending bill. Having finally crossed a hurdle, the BJP should at least now refrain from assessing the border issue through its traditional prism of immigration and security.