lBA enforced; thousands are stateless no more
At the stroke of the midnight hour, on August 1, the world's messiest border was re-drawn and citizenship accorded to thousands of stateless individuals. Indian and Bangladeshi enclaves, clusters in adverse possession of the other nation, on both sides of the borders, were officially dissolved, as the 1974 land Boundary Agreement and the related 2011 boundary protocol came into effect. It is as if a slice of history has finally been washed away by time. legend has it that the enclaves were the result of a chess game between two rulers who used the villages under their control as pawns.
In 1974, New Delhi and Dhaka sought to clear up the mess but it would take more than four decades for the land boundary agreement to be cleared. The delay was on the Indian side but finally, this year, the Government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, building on the progress that had been made by former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was able to resolve the long-pending issue and have the 1974 agreement ratified in Parliament. In doing so, the Modi Administration has cleared the biggest roadblock in India-Bangladesh relations (even though other contentious issues such as Teesta water sharing remain on the agenda). Still, with the border issue now sorted, both countries can focus on improving bilateral ties through improved trade and enhanced regional connectivity.
Equally importantly, individuals who were previously stateless will now have access to essential state-provided facilities such as education, power and healthcare. On the Indian side, there were 51 Bangladeshi enclaves, home to about 14,856 people. All of them will now become Indian citizens. On the Bangladeshi side, there were 37,369 individuals in 111 Indian enclaves. Most of them have opted for Bangladeshi citizenship, although 979 individuals have said that they’d like to relocate to India. While India is looking to welcome them over the next couple of months, there are some law and order concerns. local authorities believe that individuals with criminal records and hardened Islamist credentials (including members of the Jamaat-e-Islami) are using this opportunity to sneak into India and ostensibly create trouble. These issues must be dealt with carefully, especially given the law and order situation in West Bengal.