The nation stands divided over the Citizenship Amendment Act, which would open gates to the Hindus, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis and Christians persecuted in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. The glaring exclusion of Muslims and the validity of the Act is awaiting judicial interpretation.
The next step, NRC, if implemented, will have furthermore impact with the identification the illegal immigrants in the country. Any sovereign nation is entitled to determine the illegals, for deportation, naturalization and assimilation as its citizens. All options have cost and consequences, some only financial and logistical and some related to security issues as well.
As a traveller across India, it will be naïve to pretend that the illegal immigration issue is a bogey propped by the government to hide their problems on the economic front. Whether in Mumbai, Delhi, Bengaluru or Cochin (to name a few) one can easily find B’deshis working in Hotels, restaurants, as cleaners, and many such menial jobs. The daily long queues at Howrah station may not be all local youth and has a sizeable chunk of boys from across the border, whose dialect could give them away.
I spoke to a few boys, employed in an eatery, a famous idly shop. They were from Bogra, Rajshahi and crossed into Malda paying contractors for their papers and an eventual job at Chennai. The employers pay less than half the usual salary, making it a win-win situation for all. The local Indian youths want to engage with one or other political parties, do little and earn from soft extortions and dispute-settlements.
Most young Bengali carpenters in Kerala do not belong to India. A sizeable number of housemaids from Delhi and Mumbai are Bangladeshis as well. The older and less fortunate slog in the farms and as labourers in the construction sector. Interestingly, I found many Nepalis fluent in Tamil and Malayalam employed as security guards in many places.
The patterns pan all the continents around the world, the US with illegal Mexicans abound, working in the farms in the southern states, the unlawful Chinese and Koreans are managed by their respective mafias, like the Latinos. In Europe, the illegals even while under asylum scrutiny, are quickly employed for menial jobs like road cleaning etc. I recall reading a book as to how the illegals contribute to the economy of the USA.
India can be no different, where harsh labour laws and increasing wages have resulted in the underground economy, which is pretentiously ignored but is significant. One of the reasons for the failure to meet the objectives of demonetization has been these small to medium enterprises deal only in cash. They do not fill the cumbersome GST forms, nor pay any taxes and thrive on illegal migrant labour.
All said and done, the NRC is essential, even to consider a smooth naturalization process and to stop any further inflow from the neighbouring countries. Movement by humanity, for the sake of peace, safety and survival has been from time immemorial and can never be stopped by forceful means, as we have seen recently from the boat people in Europe. We can regulate the movement though, only if we look at it apolitically and stop instilling a feeling of wretchedness to the downtrodden and the poor, who live in India.
Sampath Kumar
Intrépide Voix
