Bharatiya Janata Party Vice President Shri M Venkaiah Naidu today welcomed the decision of the Hon'ble Supreme Court of scrapping the IMDT Act, 1983, with immediate effect. Shri Naidu said that the Act had over the last 20 years only helped encourage vote bank politics without addressing the mammoth problem of illegal immigration in the country and specifically in the North Eastern states.
Taking note of media reports about the possibility of the Central Government filing a review petition against the Supreme Court decision to scrap the IMDT Act, Shri Naidu hoped that good sense will prevail on the government and it would not make the mistake of acting in haste for the sake of narrow political considerations.
Shri Naidu said the BJP will reinvigorate its call for the immediate implementation of the 3D programme - Detect (the illegal immigrants), Delete (their names from the voter lists and other documents) and Deport (send them back to Bangladesh). He said the spontaneous celebrations across Assam only vindicated the anguish felt by common people who were concerned over the increasing influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Shri Naidu pointed out that the IMDT Act was a total failure as less than 1500 persons had been declared illegal and deported over the last 20 years. As compared to this Minister of State of Home Affairs Shri Jaiswal has stated that number of illegal immigrants in the country over 1.2 crore peoples. Shri Naidu said that the weak provisions of Act in reality only encouraged illegal migrants from other states to flock to Assam to evade deportation. He questioned the rationale of shifting the onus of proving the illegal status of the immigrant on the complainant rather than the accused. In addition to this, under the Act the police lacked the basic powers to take action against illegal immigrants. He also wondered how could any national political party ever support an Act that was discriminatory in nature and applied only to Assam while the rest of the country was governed by the Foreigners Act of 1946.
Shri Naidu pointed out that demographic changes in the North East states over the last few decades was a frightening reality. This was documented by the figures of the 2001 census which clearly show that the percentage growth of the muslim population in the Assam districts bordering Bangladesh between 1991 and 2001 varied from about 24.6 % to 31.7 %. These districts include Dhubri (29.5%), Barpetta (25.8%), Goalpara (31.7%), Hailakandi (27.2%), Karimganj (29.4%) and Cachar (24.6%). The primary reason for the growth of the muslim population in these districts is illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Despite this, it was unfortunate that the Assam Government for narrow political reasons had actually disowned the affidavit on the IMDT issue filed by the previous AGP Government.
This trend extends beyond Assam to even West Bengal when one examines the percentage growth of the muslim population between 1991 and 2001. The main districts clearly displaying percentage growth of muslim population are South 24 Parganas (34.2%), North 24 Parganas (23.8%), Nadia (21.9%), Murshidabad (28.4%), Maldah (30.7%), Kolkatta (19%), South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur (79.5%), Jalpaiguri (31.3%) and Cooch Behar (18.5%). Shri Naidu recalled the recent press statements of Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Chief Minister of West Bengal who had in June 2005 expressed his serious concern at the infiltration from Bangladesh and warned about the demographic changes taking place. Shri Bhattacharya had pointed out that in some pockets Bangladeshis were actually outnumbering Indians.
Shri Naidu said that while the NDA Government had every intention of repealing the IMDT Act it could not do so because of lacking majority in the Rajya Sabha and the stiff opposition from the Congress and Left parties. He recalled that when the Maharashtra Government was deporting the illegal immigrants, the CPM opposed the move and offloaded them in Kolkatta. Shri Naidu called upon all parties to rise above narrow political considerations and in the national interest recognize the menacing threat of uncontrolled illegal immigration that has the potential to damage the socio-cultural identity and also place a huge economic burden on the North East and border regions.
Shri Naidu recalled how both the Task Force on Internal Security headed by Shri N N Vohra and later the Task Force on Border Management headed by Shri Madhav Godbole had said that illegal immigration posed a grave threat to border security. He also asked the Central Government to take serious note of the reports on this issue sent by the successive Governors Shri Rajeshwar, Lt Gen Sinha and the current Governor of Assam.
The BJP Vice President hoped that good sense would prevail upon the Central Government, the Assam State Government, and Congress Party controlled by the Communist parties and move towards tackling this serious problem affecting the security of the country. He said that the country cannot afford any longer to be indifferent to this burning issue and for the sake of vote-bank politics cannot sacrifice the national interests.
Taking note of media reports about the possibility of the Central Government filing a review petition against the Supreme Court decision to scrap the IMDT Act, Shri Naidu hoped that good sense will prevail on the government and it would not make the mistake of acting in haste for the sake of narrow political considerations.
Shri Naidu said the BJP will reinvigorate its call for the immediate implementation of the 3D programme - Detect (the illegal immigrants), Delete (their names from the voter lists and other documents) and Deport (send them back to Bangladesh). He said the spontaneous celebrations across Assam only vindicated the anguish felt by common people who were concerned over the increasing influx of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh.
Shri Naidu pointed out that the IMDT Act was a total failure as less than 1500 persons had been declared illegal and deported over the last 20 years. As compared to this Minister of State of Home Affairs Shri Jaiswal has stated that number of illegal immigrants in the country over 1.2 crore peoples. Shri Naidu said that the weak provisions of Act in reality only encouraged illegal migrants from other states to flock to Assam to evade deportation. He questioned the rationale of shifting the onus of proving the illegal status of the immigrant on the complainant rather than the accused. In addition to this, under the Act the police lacked the basic powers to take action against illegal immigrants. He also wondered how could any national political party ever support an Act that was discriminatory in nature and applied only to Assam while the rest of the country was governed by the Foreigners Act of 1946.
Shri Naidu pointed out that demographic changes in the North East states over the last few decades was a frightening reality. This was documented by the figures of the 2001 census which clearly show that the percentage growth of the muslim population in the Assam districts bordering Bangladesh between 1991 and 2001 varied from about 24.6 % to 31.7 %. These districts include Dhubri (29.5%), Barpetta (25.8%), Goalpara (31.7%), Hailakandi (27.2%), Karimganj (29.4%) and Cachar (24.6%). The primary reason for the growth of the muslim population in these districts is illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Despite this, it was unfortunate that the Assam Government for narrow political reasons had actually disowned the affidavit on the IMDT issue filed by the previous AGP Government.
This trend extends beyond Assam to even West Bengal when one examines the percentage growth of the muslim population between 1991 and 2001. The main districts clearly displaying percentage growth of muslim population are South 24 Parganas (34.2%), North 24 Parganas (23.8%), Nadia (21.9%), Murshidabad (28.4%), Maldah (30.7%), Kolkatta (19%), South Dinajpur and North Dinajpur (79.5%), Jalpaiguri (31.3%) and Cooch Behar (18.5%). Shri Naidu recalled the recent press statements of Shri Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, Chief Minister of West Bengal who had in June 2005 expressed his serious concern at the infiltration from Bangladesh and warned about the demographic changes taking place. Shri Bhattacharya had pointed out that in some pockets Bangladeshis were actually outnumbering Indians.
Shri Naidu said that while the NDA Government had every intention of repealing the IMDT Act it could not do so because of lacking majority in the Rajya Sabha and the stiff opposition from the Congress and Left parties. He recalled that when the Maharashtra Government was deporting the illegal immigrants, the CPM opposed the move and offloaded them in Kolkatta. Shri Naidu called upon all parties to rise above narrow political considerations and in the national interest recognize the menacing threat of uncontrolled illegal immigration that has the potential to damage the socio-cultural identity and also place a huge economic burden on the North East and border regions.
Shri Naidu recalled how both the Task Force on Internal Security headed by Shri N N Vohra and later the Task Force on Border Management headed by Shri Madhav Godbole had said that illegal immigration posed a grave threat to border security. He also asked the Central Government to take serious note of the reports on this issue sent by the successive Governors Shri Rajeshwar, Lt Gen Sinha and the current Governor of Assam.
The BJP Vice President hoped that good sense would prevail upon the Central Government, the Assam State Government, and Congress Party controlled by the Communist parties and move towards tackling this serious problem affecting the security of the country. He said that the country cannot afford any longer to be indifferent to this burning issue and for the sake of vote-bank politics cannot sacrifice the national interests.
(Shyam Jaju)
Office Secretary
Office Secretary
To Write Comment Please Login
.gif)
