Akhil Bharatiya Adhibakta Parishad meets end
By Golak Chandra Das
BHUBANESWAR:The problems of North East as evident today emanate from the faulty policies of Britishers but sadly the current Indian government only furthering the divisive policies of the British Raj.
These views were expressed by a distinguished panel comprising Dr Krishna Gopal Sah-Sarkaryavah of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), Joydeep Roy, Senior Advocate Supreme Court and Anuradha Paul, Advocate. The panellists put forth their views on the topic “NorthEast and East—Legal perspective” in the three-day national conference of Akhil Bhartiya Adhivakta Parishad.
Giving a detailed history of the grave problems of North East, Dr Gopal ji said the basic problem that nation faces today is about illegal immigration from Bangladesh. He urged everyone know the basics of existing problems of North East before a pliable solution can be attempted.
“In 1905 when Bengal was partitioned, East and West Bengal were carved out of the then state of Bengal. But then this was not that easy, the population of East Bengal was around 3 crore with Muslims in the majority. The then British rulers clubbed another province and named the new province as East Bengal and Assam,” said Dr Gopal. He added that this aspect is not known by almost 99.9% of our countrymen or by Assamese people. “Assam’s population was roughly around 30 lakh at that time. Governor General Curzon carved out this new province through the infamous Bengal partition and helped in the establishment of Muslim League at Dhaka in 1906.”
Dr Gopal added that Curzon then made Muslims agree that they start occupying and capturing vacant land of Assam. “This is the background of the issue where a Hindu majority province was clubbed with a Muslim majority province. The geographical area of Assam in those days was greater than that of East Bengal, which included the entire North East excluding the princely states of Trupura and Manipur. The entire area was roughly around 3 lakh square km. So the Muslim migration to these areas begins from this Bengal partition” he explained.
Dr Gopal added that in 1931, the then Census commissioner wrote in his report that if Muslim immigration continues unhindered in Assam and then a day would come when Assamese people would find Muslims in a majority in all their districts.
“Despite Bengal’s division was abolished in 1911, yet Muslim majority areas had been clubbed with Assam for ever,” said Dr Gopal. He added that to understand things in the right perspective a little background of the issue needs to be understood.
“Soon after independence, when Gulzari Lal Nanda came to Assam he was shown black flags and then a new scheme was enacted that was called Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan. (at that time Bangladesh had not been formed). Due to this close to 2 lakh 58 thousand illegal Pakistani infiltrators were identified and deported,” he said.
“Sadly, Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan (PIP) was soon abolished. However, in 1983 a new Act called IMDT came into force that was meant to deport foreigners and illegal immigrants staying illegally in Bharat. But the Act was heavily lopsided and the onus to prove that a person is illegal immigrant lied on the person who moved an application that a person is an illegal immigrant,” said Dr Gopal.
He added that in 2005, Supreme Court struck down the IMDT Act. The SC in its ruling said that a deeper analysis of the IMDT Act reveals that they have been purposely enacted so as to give shelter to the illegal immigrants who have come to Assam from Bangladesh. The Apex Court further noted that the IMDT Act gives protection to the illegal immigrants instead of identifying and deporting them.
Dr Gopal added that in 2006, a new law was enacted that put the onus to prove that a person is illegal immigrant on the Police. Supreme Court yet again struck down the controversial law.
“At present there is no law in Assam to identify and deport illegal immigrants. Ironically, even the Foreigner Expulsion Act that is applicable across the country is not applicable in Assam,” he said.
Dr Gopal added that a sinister design to fragment Hindus of the country has been going on. Different terms were given for people living in jungles such as aboriginals, indigenous, tribals etc…these different terms were used in subsequent census such that Hindus are not identified en-bloc in a census.
“The immediate effect of this is that 73% were Hindus in Assam’s population but due to the distorted nomenclature a big block of tribals immediately were demarcated under a separate heading. So a Hindu majority Assam was converted into a Hindu minority due to this faulty nomenclature. So the sinister design was to first convert a Hindu majority Assam into a Hindu minority, then club Assam with the province that would be given away to Pakistan,” he said.
Dr Gopal ji further advocated a deeper analysis of Sixth Schedule of Indian Constitution that has furthered fragmentation and created a “State within State” that keeps giving autonomy to smaller geographical regions.
“Another piquant issue hanging on several years is about the exchange of villages between India and Bangladesh. Certain Indian villages known as enclaves are present in Bangladesh and other Bangladeshi villages known as exclaves are present in India. An agreement was reached for mutual exchange of enclaves but the most dangerous aspect is that the exchange of villages will happen without having compensation of land. Bangladesh’s Parliament has ratified this agreement but Indian Parliament is yet to consider this issue. After Mrs Indira Gandhi, in 2011 PM Manmohan Singh went ahead with the proposal without having a compensation of land,” he explained.
“There is about 17,000 acre land that needs to be handed over to Bangladesh in the form of 11 enclaves and in return India will get only about 7,000 acre land from Bangladesh. However, a detailed study by representatives from Adhivakta Parishad establish that over 22,000 acre land will actually be given out by Indian government to Bangladesh,” Dr Gopal said.
Anuradha Paul a member of the Adhivakta Parishad from Shillong said that Bangladesh has become a safe haven for radical insurgent groups. “A large number of terrorists from Pakistan come over to India via Dhaka because of the porous nature of Indo-Bangla border.” She also added that around 20 million Bangladeshis have entered India. “Around 7 lakh cows are smuggled from India inside Bangladesh to provide meat to their beef industry.”
She also took strong exception to a former BSF chief’s statement where he had advocated legalizing the cattle smuggling across the Indo-Bangla border.Joydeep Roy, Advocate Supreme Court of India said strong steps need to be taken to bring people from Andaman closer to the Indian mainland. There is an urgent need to inquire that the 572 islands that are part of Andaman island chain are actually with India.
The Akhil Bharatiya Adhivakta Parishad is the largest organization of lawyers in the country. With the motto of ‘Nyaya Mama Dharma ’ it is working all over the country. Since it’s inception in th
e year 1992, ABAP is working towards the object of resurrecting Bharatiya values and ingraining idealism in the hearts of advocates and for improving efficacy and standards of the Bar and the Judiciary of the country.
