22 years of Assam Accord--infiltration remains burning issue

GUWAHATI: The historic Assam Accord to settle the contentious foreigner issue is 22 years old, but the problem of illegal migration continues to foster.
   
Unabated influx from Bangladesh has assumed alarming proportion in recent months, threatening to create tension between different states of the North East.

The Assam Accord was signed on August 15, 1985 between the Centre and representatives of All Assam Students' Union and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, which had spearheaded the movement against foreigners, in the presence of then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to settle the foreigners' issue.

The Accord says "foreigners who came to Assam on or after March 25, 1971 shall continue to be detected, deleted and expelled in accordance with law. Immediate and practical steps shall be taken to expel such foreigners."

This, however, has proved an uphill task for all successive governments, including the two Asom Gana Parishad  (AGP) government led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, regarded as the brain behind the foreigners' agitation.

The Congress government has disclosed that since the signing of the Accord, 42,449 foreign nationals have been identified but of them only 2,221 have been deported so far.

Assam Accord Implementation Minister Bhumidhar Barman said that during the last three and a half years from 2004 to June 2007, only 11 Bangladeshis were deported though 110 were detected in 2004, 117 in 2005, 60 in 2006 and 118 upto June 2007.

AASU advisor Samujjal Bhattacharya alleged that the government lacks "political will" to detect and deport Bangladeshis and the problem lingers creating a dangerous impact on the demographic pattern of the state.

"The problem of infiltration has plagued the state for decades and despite an agitation where so many people lost their lives and subsequent lack of development mainly due to this problem, the government is interested only in vote-bank politics and not in solving the problem which threatens the very existence of the indigenous Assamese," he said.

It is the duty of the Assam Government to solve the issue and "we will not rest till they do so", Bhattacharya added.

The Accord had stated that the government will give due consideration to certain difficulties expressed by the AASU regarding the implementation of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 which the Supreme Court struck down in 2005.

The AGP wanted the Act to be scrapped but the Congress government was in favour of the Act. AASU's then President Sarbananda Sonowal filed a case in the Supreme Court which declared it null and void in 2005 -- twenty years after the signing of the Accord.

Following the scrapping of the Act, the foreigners would be detected and deported according to the Foreigners' Act and it was also decided to update the National Register of Citizens, 1951.

The tardy progress in updating of the National Register of Citizens has also raised the hackles of AASU and other political parties, particularly AGP and BJP.

AGP President Brindabon Goswami said it was at the first tripartite meeting between the Centre, Assam and AASU that the decision to update the NRC within two years was taken but no substantial progress has taken place.

"The government is saying that the process of updating the 1951 document was on but they are not clear and open about the progress made so far," he added.

Another important clause of the Accord was "the international border shall be made secure against future infiltration by erection of physical barriers like walls, barbed wire fencing and other obstacles at appropriate places".

Barman said nearly 85 per cent of the border fencing is complete and the entire process was expected to be completed by next year.

The recent pushing back of suspected illegal migrants from neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland has also created tension with the Congress government in Assam claiming that they are genuine Indian citizens but the other two states maintaining that they are of doubtful origin.