Nrc bogey

Nrc bogey

Amit Shah’s illegal immigration rhetoric is poll-time gimmick.

In poll-bound Rajasthan, BJP president Amit Shah has once again defended the National Register of Citizens (NRC) exercise in Assam and vowed to expel all Bangladeshi ‘infiltrators’. It will be recalled that the final draft list of the NRC released in July had excluded 40 lakh people. But subsequent reports highlighted several cases where members of the same family got different responses to their NRC applications. This has raised questions on the quality of the exercise itself. Shah, however, is taking the fight to Congress – which has criticised the shoddy execution of NRC – and accusing the latter of shielding its vote bank.

Nonetheless, the fact remains that no one knows what will happen to the declared illegal immigrants at the end of the process. Irrespective of what Shah says, deportation to Bangladesh is not an option as that country doesn’t recognise any large-scale outbound migration to India since 1972. And with elections in Bangladesh in a few months, it will be suicidal for any regime in Dhaka to accept the Indian position. Besides, New Delhi would do well not to force the issue with Dhaka. India-Bangladesh relations have been excellent in recent times and raising the illegal immigration spectre can see Bangladesh go the Nepal way.

Therefore, it’s clear that Shah is playing identity politics with NRC. This is further confirmed by Shah’s reiteration that government’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, will grant citizenship to Hindus from neighbouring countries – a provision that could prompt further migration and besides, is likely to be challenged in courts where its constitutionality will be tested. Akin to reservations, expelling illegal infiltrators is politically correct rhetoric that won’t resolve anything on the ground. The only practical course is to work with Bangladesh to prevent future migration from that country.