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Single card, multiple purposes

The Shiv Sena has decided to step up its campaign to make identity cards mandatory for residents of Mumbai to curb illegal immigration.

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Shiv Sena wants to protect sons of soil; others want to fight infiltrators

MUMBAI: The Shiv Sena has decided to step up its campaign to make identity cards mandatory for residents of Mumbai to curb illegal immigration. With the city’s population touching 15 million, the Sena’s biggest concern is to ensure that “sons of the soil” are not elbowed out by “outsiders”.

“Mumbai cannot be allowed to become the gateway for all illegal migrants,” says Uddhav Thackeray, Shiv Sena executive president. When the idea of issuing identity cards to all citizens was suggested by Sena leader Bal Thackeray a couple of decades ago, not many took it seriously. Today, other states are buying the idea, but not Maharashtra.

“There should be a uniform national identity card,” says Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh. “If you can have a common driving licence accepted everywhere, why not a national identity card?”

Deshmukh, however, says Mumbai cannot have its own identity card even if its problems are complex. “As per the Constitution, you cannot have an identity card for Mumbai alone and debar people from other cities,” he says.
 
Unlike the Sena, the BJP, its ally, is more worried about illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Former deputy prime minister LK Advani has been asserting that a national identity card would help check infiltration from across the borders and thus curb terrorist activities. The Union home ministry, too, is worried about illegal immigrants. The fear was voiced by home minister Shivraj Patil at an internal meeting last fortnight. A senior official in the ministry, who attended the meeting, says, “Even by conservative estimates, there are 1.5 crore Bangladeshis in Kolkata, Mumbai, and Delhi.”

According to BJP leader Kirit Somaiya, “We have been talking of an I-card for 10 years. But it is yet to come into force.” Somaiya says Mumbai’s population is showing abnormal growth, chiefly in Muslim-dominated areas.

The proposal for compulsory identity cards has been welcomed by all parties. Even the Congress and the NCP believe there should be some mechanism to weed out illegal infiltrators. But neither is in favour of waging war on migrants from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar or the South.

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