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In India, as in other democratic countries, immigration and citizenship are quite contentious issues. When our Home Minister Rajnath Singh introduced the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016, in the Lok Sabha, it was a conscious and well-planned political decision to grant citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindus and a few minority groups from neighbouring countries. But, at the same time, deporting illegal immigrants from Assam and some other parts is equally disturbing. A large number of activists of the non-government organisation (NGO) Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS) recently staged a demonstration in front of Assam’s district and circle administration offices to protest against the government’s decision to settle Hindu Bangladeshis in the state.

Let’s see what the Bill says—the Hindus, Buddhists, Jains, Parsis and Christians from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan…shall not be treated as illegal migrants for the purpose of this Act. Political changes in India are certainly appearing to be major detriments to the Modi government’s decision. This is certainly BJP’s long pending objective, but the government’s move to pave the way for Bangladeshi Hindu illegal migrants to acquire Indian citizenship is claimed by many not to be the result of any high liberal concern. They feel it is  aimed at increasing the party’s vote share among the Hindu immigrants settled in West Bengal and is therefore partisan and discriminatory.

Now the KMSS is mobilizing hundreds of its activists across Assam to rally against the settlement of Hindu Bangladeshis when the Assam government at the recently held budget session had informed the House that since 1985 till date, some 29712 migrants had been deported. KMSS advisor Akhil Gogoi said his organisation would initiate large-scale agitation across the state against the decision to settle Hindu Bangladeshis in Assam. Demanding the cancellation of the new ‘Citizenship (Amendment) Bill’, the KMSS has even sent a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The organisation is carrying out protests in different parts of Assam and trying make the public aware of the bill. The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill was introduced last year and is now under scrutiny of a parliamentary committee.

After the amendment, the bill seeks to allow illegal migrants from certain minority communities in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, and Pakistan to be eligible for Indian citizenship. Gogoi said, “This is important because illegal migration is a major issue in Assam and fear has gripped the minds of our indigenous people. This concern led to a six-year long agitation in Assam, following which the Assam Accord was signed in 1985, but that too is yet to be implemented in its entirety. The influx problem is still as serious as it was years ago.”

In Assam, every single political party is using the Bangladeshi Hindu influx issue to further their political goals, though there are no official figures on illegal migrants. The Union Minister of State for Home, Kiren Rijiju informed the Rajya Sabha last November that there are nearly two crore illegal Bangladeshis in India. A former minister in the previous government, Sreeprakash Jaiswal told the upper house that out of 1.2 crore illegal Bangladeshis, nearly 50 lakhs stay in Assam. On the other hand, only one illegal Bangladeshi was deported in 2015. Guwahati High Court’s senior advocate Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Chowdhury had said in an interview recently that only a flawless National Register of Citizens (NRC) could solve the problem of illegal migrants.

Assam’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Chandramohan Patwary said that the work of updating this information is being done very carefully. At the same time, utmost attention is being paid to ensure that not a single name of an Indian citizen is left out. According to the minister, out of the total six phases, work on only two phases has been completed. There are no reliable figures on the number of Bangladeshi immigrants coming to India. Minorities from Pakistan and Afghanistan is too negligible to even be statistically significant—but estimates suggest anywhere between 15-20 million Bangladeshis, mostly Muslims, have crossed over and settled in various parts of India, largely in West Bengal and Assam. The BJP-led NDA government under Atal Behari Vajpayee made some noises about illegal migration from Bangladesh but took no firm steps to stop it.

This time around, however, the BJP government at the Centre and in Assam seem to be following a calibrated approach. While the Modi government seeks to bring into the citizenship fold, the Hindu immigrants, the Sarbananda Sonowal regime in Assam wants to bar Muslim immigrants. A dual inclusive-exclusion policy is at work. So what drives this dual policy? The answer to this question would seem obvious. The power to admit or exclude aliens is inherent in sovereignty and essential for any political community. Every state has legal and moral rights to exercise that power in pursuit of its own national interest, even if that means denying entry to peaceful, needy foreigners. Governments of immigrant-receiving countries may choose to be generous in admitting immigrants or granting citizenship status to those already settled within its borders, but they are under no obligation to do so.

The BJP government perhaps believes that admitting Hindu immigrants into India’s citizenship fold would entail no political risk as the country’s ethnic composition would not be altered if minorities are absorbed as citizens. On the other hand, its decision to welcome Hindus and not Muslims may be because the latter are perceived as a political threat to India. But the experts say that this is at best a political gimmick designed to keep the immigration pot boiling on a low flame. The Modi government’s decision, therefore, is largely aimed at playing to the gallery and in expectation of electoral profit, especially in West Bengal.

The Modi government will surely find it challenging to determine whether Hindus fleeing Bangladesh are persecuted refugees for mainly two reasons. First, India is not a signatory to international treaties or conventions on refugees and therefore, the question of granting them asylum never came up. Secondly, the decision to accord citizenship to Bangladeshi Hindu immigrants, based on their fear of persecution, real or imagined, in their homeland would create an adverse effect on bilateral relations with Bangladesh. It may be recalled here that India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and former Pakistani Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan signed a treaty where it was agreed that no Hindu citizen will be forced to cross over to India. A similar agreement was made by Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1985 at Dhaka.