Time to end porosity of India-Bangladesh line
By directing the Union Government to secure the India-Bangladesh border, the Supreme Court has made a timely intervention which, if carried out effectively, will result in improvements on the social, economic and political fronts. Currently, the 4,096 km India-Bangladesh border, which runs through the States of West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Mizoram and Meghalaya, is an especially porous one.
The two countries have almost no natural barriers, and just a handful of pillars mark the dividing line for the most part. Also, the border areas are fertile and densely populated, with the dividing line cutting through buildings even, making it impossible to implement proper border control. As a result, large-scale illegal movement of people, livestock and commodities has been rampant for decades.
This has led to a horde of problems. First, illegal immigration, encouraged by vote-bank-seeking politicians on this side of the border, has put enormous pressure on the limited resources of Indian States. Second, the influx of millions of Bangladeshi Muslims has threatened the ethnic identities of indigenous populations who fear being relegated to the position of minority communities in their ancestral homeland.
These factors have not just added to poverty and unemployment but also resulted in communal conflagrations. In fact, in 2005, the Supreme Court warned that Assam, especially, faced “external aggression and internal disturbance” as it was being swamped by people “who have no right to continue to live in this country”. A third problem of the porous border is illegal trade: Just about everything — from cows to saris, narcotics and weapons — pass through here.
This has had an adverse impact on official bilateral trade. It also poses a major security threat, the fourth problem, wherein the India-Bangladesh border becomes a gateway for terrorists, Islamists, separatists and other anti-social elements. The recent Burdwan bomb blast is an important example of how the leaky border gravely threatens both India and Bangladesh.
Notably, efforts to firm up border security have been underway since 1986, when Parliament approved of a plan to fence the border as part of the Assam Accord. However, almost three decades and billions of tax-payer rupees later, the fence is yet to be completed. Ancillary security plans, to instal floodlights for example, have also made little progress.
The Government continues to deploy a large contingent of the Border Security Force, but that is hardly adequate given the ground situation. Also, clashes between the Border Security Force, its Bangladeshi counterpart and illegal immigrants have become a thorny bilateral issue. The land border agreement should help to some extent, but, unless the line is secured, illegal movements will continue unabated.
Another issue that the apex court has highlighted is the legality of Section 6A in the Citizenship Act of 1955. Introduced in 1985, under the Assam Accord, it gives citizenship to Bangladeshis who came to India before 1966, refers those who came between 1966 and 1971 to a Foreigners Tribunal, and calls for the deportation of the rest. A contentious piece of legislation, it will be interesting to see how the matter plays out, both politically and legally.