Two Strong Measures Needed To Curb Illegal Influx Of Bangladeshi And Rohingya Muslims

Security forces in Assam and Tripura have nabbed more than 300 Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslim infiltrators in the first three weeks of October.

As is well known, for every infiltrator who is nabbed, at least 100 manage to evade vigil and stay on in India. Going by this maxim, an estimated 30,000 Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims may have entered India illegally in the current month through Assam and Tripura!

Add to this figure the number of Bangladeshis and Rohingyas who regularly enter India through Bengal, where the party in power actively encourages such infiltration to create vote banks — the enormity of the problem becomes clear.

While most of this infiltration occurs through the porous and unfenced portions of the Indo-Bangladesh border, breaching the fence is also commonplace. 

And no matter how much the vigil along the international border is intensified, infiltrators find ways to breach the border and enter India.

This means that, along with serious efforts to strengthen vigil along the border, measures need to be taken to discourage this influx of Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims, who are not only causing an alarming demographic change in many parts of the country but also pose a grave internal security threat. 

After crossing the border, the infiltrators manage to procure Indian documents like ration cards, Aadhaar cards, and voter identity cards in connivance with elected representatives of rural bodies as well as lower-rung government officials. 

The elected representatives of gram panchayats and panchayat samitis issue letters certifying that the infiltrators have been known to them personally for decades and have been born in some village under their jurisdiction. 

Headmasters of local schools also falsify records to certify that the infiltrators studied in their schools. 

Armed with these fraudulent certificates, the infiltrators apply for ration, Aadhaar, and voter identity cards, which are issued by local officials either in exchange for small sums of money or on the instructions of local politicians, as is the case in Bengal.

What Needs To Be Done

The Union government needs to step in immediately and put in place a mechanism that imposes prohibitive costs on those who issue fraudulent certificates and citizenship documents to the infiltrators. 

Also, the illegal infiltrators who are nabbed are prosecuted under mild provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946, which entails imprisonment of two years and a fine of only Rs 10,000.

This mild punishment is hardly a deterrent and has done nothing to curb the illegal influx of tens of lakhs of Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims who have entered India illegally over the past few decades.      

Moreover, the penalty for issuing fake documents like birth certificates, residency certificates, and school certificates to infiltrators by government officials and elected representatives is mild. 

The act of issuing fake certificates to infiltrators must be put in the category of an anti-national act and made punishable with rigorous imprisonment for at least two decades. 

Issuing fake certificates to foreigners must be considered acts that undermine the integrity of the country and must attract strong punishment. But it is not enough to put strong punishments in place. 

A number of infiltrators from Bangladesh, as well as Rohingyas, are nabbed routinely from various parts of the country and fake citizenship documents recovered from them.

While the infiltrators are imprisoned for short durations and then deported, the officials who had issued those fake citizenship documents are never caught. 

The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) needs to be more proactive and identify these erring officials. The crime of issuing fake citizenship documents must be made a federal offence since it cannot be left to states like Bengal that encourage infiltration to act against such officials.

The erring officials must be arrested and slapped with charges of endangering national security. Issuing fake citizenship documents to infiltrators must be treated as a crime against the nation and must be treated at par with sedition and waging war against the state. 

The guilty officials must be tried in fast-track courts and sentences handed down in a matter of months. Only that will put the fear of the law into lower-rung government officials who don’t bat an eyelid while issuing citizenship documents to Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslim infiltrators. 

Only the fear of undergoing rigorous imprisonment for long periods will deter government officials from issuing fake citizenship documents.

Also, instead of the mild punishment currently meted out, those who enter India illegally must be treated as enemies of the nation and must be subjected to rigorous imprisonment for at least a decade. 

At present, Bangladeshi nationals and Rohingyas know very well that even if they are caught after they enter India illegally, they will spend only a short time in prison before being deported. That hardly deters them from crossing the border illegally. 

But if they know that they run the risk of spending at least 10 years in prison, where rigorous imprisonment means being subjected to arduous work for long hours, they will think twice about entering India. 

Along with this, of course, conditions in India need to be made unfavourable for such infiltrators. Apart from ensuring that they cannot acquire fake certificates and citizenship documents, infiltrators must be subjected to harsh measures even before they are imprisoned. 

The message should go out loud and clear to all Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims who harbour mala fide intentions of crossing over into India that their misadventure will cost them a lot and that India is not welcoming of them.

Only then can the tide of Bangladeshi and Rohingya Muslims entering India illegally be stopped.