Will illegal migrants outnumber the people of North-east India in 20 years?

If Assam Governor Lt Gen (Retd) Ajay Singh?s statement that about 6000 illegal Bangladeshis are entering Assam daily is correct, then the fate of the north-east people are terribly at stake.

If 6000 illegal Bangladeshis infiltrate into Assam daily, it will be 1, 80,000 Bangladeshis in a month and 21.6 lakh annually. The State will have 21.6 million illegal Bangladeshis by 2015, outnumbering the entire population of the region excluding Assam and the whole northeast will be reduced to a minority in 20 years time.

The complexity involved here is that this country has over 100 million genuine Indian Muslims, about one-fifth of the whole population. Besides the Government has earlier estimated 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India.

Though there are no official figures of actual numbers of Bangladeshis in Assam, locals say their population could be 6 million of the State?s 26 million people. This means a little over one-fourth of the State?s population is Bangladeshi immigrants. And the State alone produces over one-third Bangladeshi immigrants in the country.

Although Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi rejects the Governor?s seemingly inflated claim, the fact is the illegal immigrants from across the international border have been infiltrating into the State unabated over the years. The Chief Minister while talking to press in Guwahati however admitted that infiltration from Bangladesh had not stopped.

?Effective steps have been taken to check infiltration,? Gogoi said. ?Anybody found crossing the border is pushed back and those entered after March 25, 1971, as per the Assam Accord would be detected and deported.?

It may be mentioned that the powerful All Assam Students Union (ASSU) had launched a bloody campaign to push Bangladeshis back to their land. Indigenous people who feared they would be reduced to a minority in their own land massacred thousands of Bangladeshis, including women and children, across the State.

The Government and the Students? Union signed a pact in 1985, but clauses on the deportation of foreigners have still not been implemented.

Though there are genuine Assamese Muslims and mainland Muslims, the present influx of illegal Bangladeshis in the State has not only affected the demography of the State but also the entire region, leading to serious threat to the survival of the region?s people and the country?s internal security as well.

Tripura is a gone case and Nagaland is the next target because large number of these Muslims has been swarming the State. In the last few years, there is a dramatic change in the socio-economic feature of the State. The lack of work culture, easy money, easy life style, etc are the main causes that these Muslims mostly coming from Assam have taken opportunities to stay in Nagaland. All the manual works, construction of houses, taxi driving, rickshaw pulling and cultivation are mostly done by these Muslims today. They also run almost half of the shops in Dimapur, the biggest commercial hub of the State and the capital, Kohima. But historically speaking, the people of Nagaland do not have any connection whatsoever with the Muslim community---be it mainland Muslim or Bangladeshi Muslim and Assamese Muslims.

However, Manipur has its Muslim communities who had come there in the middle of the 16th century. It was recorded in the history that large number of Muslims started entering Manipur from Sylhet in the 17th century during the reign of King Khagemba (1597-1652) at the invitation of Prince Sadongba. Prince Sadongba had planned to dethrone his brother King Khagenmba with the help of these Muslims.

In many wars in the past, Manipur Kings used the services of Muslim soldiers who were considered skilled fighters. In King Pamheiba?s period in 18th century, Muslim soldiers in Manipur defended the combined attacked of Burma and Tripura. Many Muslim soldiers also lost their lives when Manipur suffered in the hands of the Burmese in 1758 Burmese-Manipur war. In the famous ?Seven-year-devastation? of Manipur from 1819 to 1826, the Burmese soldiers had taken many Muslims to Burma while many escaped to Assam and Bangladesh. Even when the British defeated Manipur in 1891, many Muslim soldiers were also killed and some were deported to Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

But the Bangladesh Muslims mostly coming via Assam in recent times could not attempt to settle in Manipur despite Manipur Muslims are there. Because these illegal Bangladeshis are mostly economic-driven people and will have least chance to do the lowest paid jobs in Manipur. One will find how all the odd manual works are done by the Manipuris in Imphal city. One will find hardly any Bangladeshi Muslim used for any job in the State.

However, the logic in argument is that most of the Muslims in Nagaland or Assam or Arunachal Pradesh or Tripura or Meghalya are not mostly from mainland India. 95% of Muslims in Nagaland are coming from Assam claiming to be the banafide citizens of that State (Assam). If the size of the Muslim population in Nagaland is from Assam and not from mainland India, then the matter is questionable. How can Assam have such a huge Muslim population spilling over into other parts of the region unless coming from across the international border?

The long stretch of Assam forest bordering Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh has over the years disappeared and been systematically occupied by the illegal immigrants. The trouble is most of these illegal settlers are well equipped with valid land holding documents issued by the Assam administrations. Sources say most of the State?s reserved forest in the border areas has vanished and its now settled by the illegal immigrants and not by the real Assamese people. The Nagaland Government often alleges that these illegal immigrants have even occupied the Disputed Area Belt (DAB) that leads to frequent border skirmishes.

Various intelligent agencies have been warning of serious consequences if immediate attention is not paid. Unfortunately, these illegal migrants have been given legal protection with resident certificates, pattas, etc for narrow political mileage. As a result, the real Assamese people have been reduced to minority in most of the border districts and they are now voiceless.

The recent exodus of Bangladeshi suspects from upper Assam following threats through SMS and leaflets by some unidentified people is evident of the illegal Bangladeshis? presence.

Region?s economic underdevelopment coupled with Center?s prolonged negligence and the continuous insurgency and the chasm that existed between the people of the region and the mainland people are some of the reasons that have given room to the illegal immigrants and outside elements to exploit maximum advantages.

There is certainly genuine mainland Muslims in the region like Tamils, Keralites, Bengalis, Punjabis, Marwaris, etc. But the mainland Muslims will have least interest to come and settle in the region and their influx is out of question.

Whether the Assam Governor?s statement on the infiltration of illegal Bangladeshis into Assam is exaggerated or not, the Chief Minister has also admitted that there is still infiltration of illegal Bangladeshis into the State.

The illegal Bangladeshi infiltration into Assam and elsewhere in the region has changed its (region) demography and now it has become a serious threat to the future survival of the region?s people and also the internal security problem for the nation.

To identify the illegal Bangladeshis will not be very difficult once the citizens are properly educated about their natures. Assam has larger role to solve the illegal immigrant issues and the actions taken there will have maximum impact in other parts of the region.

So long, illegal immigrant issue of Assam remains unresolved; there is no point for other States in the region to think of. Because most of these supposed to be illegal migrants who are coming to other States of the region are well equipped with domicile certificates issued by Assam administrations.
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Bangladeshis - Is congress playing games with India's illegal immigration problem to get more Muslim votes?

Congress needs the minority votes in India especially that of Muslims to get elected and stay in power. But are they playing games with fire? Sources say little is being done to get rid of the illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. Millions are coming in every month in Assam, Tripura, West Bengal and other neighboring states. These illegal immigrants are quickly moving towards Kashmir on the Indian side of the Line of Control and are getting refuge. Congress knowing this very well is sitting tight hoping for more votes next time around. The left parties are more vocal but is not doing much either.

In the mean time the Northeast India is upset and separatists feel Congress is intentionally allowing illegal migration to make sure that in future Congress can stay in power.

The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission of India on a PIL seeking CBI probe into the presence of nearly two crore illegal Bangladeshi migrants and striking their names off the electoral rolls in various states as they adversely affect the security and demographic composition of the country.

A bench comprising Chief Justice R C Lahoti, Justice G P Mathur and Justice P P Naolekar while issuing the notices, admitted the PIL filed by NGO 'Image India Foundation' which specifically pointed out that the state of Assam was worst affected by the illegal immigration from Bangladesh.

Appearing for the petitioner, advocate C D Singh contended that there was an alarming growth in population due to illegal immigration resulting in change of demographic pattern, their illegal enrolment in the electoral roll, adverse impact on development as well as posing a serious threat to the national security.

"As a result of population movement from Bangladesh, the indigenous people of Assam are being reduced to a minority in their home state," he said and added affected states included Bihar, West Bengal, Delhi, Tripura, Nagaland and Maharashtra.

The NGO stated that 85 per cent of the total encroached forestland in Assam was found to be in the hands of illegal Bangladeshi migrants and they have a major say in 43 out of 126 assembly constituencies of the state.

On the security threat from the illegal migrants, the petitioner said Indian establishment believed existence of a close nexus between the illegal migrants and the extremist groups operating in the northeastern states.

http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/12-11d-04.asp

Bangladeshi illegal immigrants start to flee Assam, India because of threats from anonymous groups – Manmohan Government could have avoided the chaos

Every day around 6,000 illegal Bangladeshi infiltrators cross the border and enter Assam, India. Many of these are Islamic militants with links to Al-Queda.
Right from beginning in order to get minority votes, the Congress led UPA Government in India have taken little steps to deport millions of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. The local people in Assam have lost jobs, their cultural heritage and their national identity because of the se illegal immigrants. Their hatred has finally manifested towards India and especially towards Indian citizens from West Bengal.
The government and the students union signed a pact in 1985 for deportation of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, but believe it or not, clauses on the deportation of foreigners have still not been implemented. Twenty years of inaction is taking violent shape now.
Now a new turn in the equation has taken place. According to media reports for Assam, thousands of Bangladeshis are fleeing Assam following threats by anonymous groups against migrants and a campaign asking locals not to employ foreigners, officials and residents said.
The unidentified groups in the troubled state's Dibrugarh district have circulated leaflets and sent text messages on mobile phones in the past week, warning Bangladeshi nationals to leave immediately or face unspecified action.
India has fenced parts of the 4,000-km border with Bangladesh, but officials say this has done little to deter migrants bent on leaving one of the world's poorest countries.
Assam shares a 272 km porous border with Bangladesh, a vast stretch of which is unfenced.
"Fencing along the border with Bangladesh in this sector has started to prevent illegal infiltration," said federal Home Secretary V.K. Duggal.
"Legal and judicial measures have also been adopted to deport illegal Bangladeshi settlers from the country."
"Every day around 6,000 illegal infiltrators cross the border and enter the state," said an intelligence official in Guwahati, the state's main city.
Mobile phones in Assam are being flooded with text messages saying, "Save the nation, save identity. Let's take an oath ... no food, no job, no shelter to Bangladeshis" while leaflets seeking an "economic blockade" of the migrants are also being distributed.
Congress Government could have taken appropriate actions coordinated with the Bangladesh Government to avoid these “citizen’s action and arrests”.
"Many laborers working in brick kilns, rickshaws pullers and construction workers have fled in the past one week due to the threat," said P.C. Saloi, superintendent of police in Dibrugarh.
Over the years, millions of illegal Bangladeshi migrants have swamped the tea-growing and oil-rich state in search for work and food.
Over two years ago, the government estimated there could be up to 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants in India, and labeled some of them a security risk.
In the early 1980s, the powerful All Assam Students Union launched a bloody campaign to push Bangladeshis back to their homeland.
Indigenous people in Assam and other Northeastern states of India who feared they would be reduced to a minority in their own land massacred thousands of Bangladeshis, including women and children, across the state.
The campaign against the Bangladeshis has mushroomed into a full-fledged uprising against New Delhi's rule and many rebel groups are still battling for independence.
The lush paddy fields and the sandy, shifting plains of the mighty Brahmaputra river that divides the countries are natural transit routes. Hundreds take rickety boats across the river, which at some places is 15 km wide, into India.
The migrants become farmhands or river fishermen in villages. In towns they are often construction workers or rickshaw pullers, and the women work as maids.
Since the latest campaign against Bangladeshis began, rickshaw pullers in Assam have gone off the road, maids have stopped coming to work and there is a shortage of eggs and chickens as most vendors were Bangladeshi. Brick kilns have been closed due to shortage of labor.
Though there are no officials figures of actual numbers of Bangladeshis in Assam, locals say their population could be six million of the state's 26 million people.
Police said most of the fleeing Bangladeshi have now moved to districts close to the border with Bangladesh.
"The police have been put on maximum alert and instructions have been given that no genuine citizens are harassed and no communal clashes take place in disturbed areas," said Rockybul Hussain, Assam's minister for home.

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http://www.indiadaily.com/editorial/2782.asp

Take the example of Rani Gaidinliu of Nagaland

Take the example of Rani Gaidinliu of Nagaland. She had led a heroic guerilla war against the British and when defeated by the mightier army, was awarded life imprisonment in a ‘fair trial’ at the age of 16. Pt. Nehru met her in Kohima jail and wrote poetically about her heroism calling her “fit to be a Rani”, hence the title of Rani with her name. AfterIndependence it was again Nehru who made her see out of jail. Smt Indira Gandhi awarded her the Padma Bhushan and also a Tamra Patra in the silver jubilee year of theIndependence. But Kohima Church and the Christian leaders of the NSCN opposed vehemently when a proposal was put up to have her statue in Kohima after her death, because she had declared her Heraka and Zeliangrong movement Hindu and had refused steadfastly to convert to Christianity.

To convert a Vanvasi, his beliefs, customs and deities are condemned, pronounced ‘incapable to provide salvation’, his entire worldview is sought to be replaced with Romanised conceptions and way of worship. It was the fear of this aggression that made Congress leader and the present CM of Arunachal Pradesh to create a Dony Polo mission and start highly motivated Vanvasi public educational institutions so that his people are saved from conversion threats.

The image of Naga society in length and breadth of the country was (i) that cent-per-cent Nagas have converted to Christianity (ii) that all Nagas were anti-Hindu and anti-India and (iii) that all Nagas were wild, savage and raw-meat enters. In America, Britain and other Christian countries, Nagas were described as wild, savage, naked, head-hunters and with no religion. I have visited several mega cities in the country. I have visited several villages in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Delhi and other states, I have lived in several Hindu families. When Hindu hosts knew that I was a Naga girl, they whispered. They could not believe that a Naga person could be so refined in all respect. It was not the mistake of Hindu hosts. It was the mistake of our own. Because we allowed foreign Christian missionaries to propagate that we-Nagas, were wild, savage, heathen, naked, head-hunters and raw-meat enters. This propaganda is still made in foreign countries with a view to collect more and more donations for Church work in Nagaland Rani Gaidinliu and later, Pou N.C. Zeliang opposed this malacious propaganda against Naga society. For this deed, both of them were cursed and victimised. Rani Ma toured the country, established close contact with Hindu organisations and cleared the cloud of misconception against Nagas from the mind of Hindus. Earlier Rani Ma, later Pou N.C. Zeliang and now Shri Ramkui Wangbe Newme, President of Zeliangrong Heraka Association have been telling us that any Naga who is neither Christian nor Muslim, falls under the category of Hindu. Because of their untiring efforts, the image of Naga society is improved and brightened in the country. The ‘terrorist’ image of us is dampening and fading away and prudent and prowess image of Nagas is emerging fast.

“Invasion by foreign religion and foreign culture will pose danger to Naga identity. Beware of this danger”.
—Rani Gaidinliu had said.

Christian Conversions and Terrorism in North-East India

North-East India is a term that usually refers to the seven states of Assam, Nagaland, Manipur, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Arunachal Pradesh. Sikkim and the Darjeeling district of West Bengal belong to it geographically but are not normally included though often associated with the North East India Christian Council. With the exception of the two princely states of Manipur and Tripura, the area was formerly known as Assam. All of these states, except Tripura are largely hilly. These states, bordering the borders of the Indian Union with Tibet, China, Myanmar and Bangladesh have witnessed an extraordinary transformation of their religious profile of their populations during the last century. An intense movement of conversion towards Christianity has taken place over the years; indeed, in several of these states, entire populations have been converted. The percentage of the Christian population in these states in 1901, 1951 (after independence) and 1991 is as follows:

State                                 1901                1951             1991
Arunachal Pradesh         NA *                  NA *            10.29
Assam                                0.4                 2.00              3.32
Manipur                          0.016              11.84             34.12
Meghalaya                       6.16              24.66              64.58
Mizoram                           0.05             90.52              85.73
Nagaland                       0.59              46.05              87.47
Tripura                           0.08                 0.82               1.69
*Not available :051
in 1961

It is true that Christian missionaries have brought education and civic amenities into this region. However, as in many parts of the world, Christianity has wiped out a whole way of life, erasing centuries of tradition, customs and wisdom. It has caused people to hold their own religion in contempt and look westwards to an alien culture. It has disrupted society by pitting the Christian converts against mainstream ‘Hindu’ India. This creation of a class-conflict has insulated the tribals from Indian society, and made them a tool in the hands of Christian missionaries. Missionaries in India have often been a divisive force, which used the tribals for advocating a breaking-up of the country. Today, Christian terrorists feel emboldened to use the gun to force Jesus down the throats of unwilling tribals. The fear of segregating Indian Christians and training and using them for the purposes of political or religious blackmail on behalf of foreign interests in moments of crisis is not without foundation. The Christian Missionaries of Chhota Nagpur offered to the British 10,000 armed converted Kols, while Dr. Mason offered a battalion of converted Karens to put down the 1857 war of Independence. Some of the methods used by the missionaries to convert and thus alienate innocent tribals and their impact are as follows:

1) British connivance: It was not the Church that entered North East India first. Rather the British administration entered first. The American Baptist Mission remained confined to the Brahmaputra valley and entered the Naga Hills only after 1872 when the Hills came under British administration. The first Christian mission to be set up in Manipur (tribal areas) was the American Baptist in 1894, three years after the Manipur administration was taken over by the British. In 1866, administration entered the Garo hills and the American Baptist followed in 1867. In the Lushai (Mizo) Hills, Christianity entered close upon the heels of administration in the 1890’s. The Catholic Mission got entry into the Garo Hills in the 1930’s chiefly through the patronage of the Governor Michael keane. According to an early evangelist Kemolhu, there was forceful opposition to Christianity in those early days and the evangelists had no place to lodge in nor did they have a place to preach the gospel. The village headman (Gaon Budha) appointed by the British government gave them shelter since they belonged to the government and no one could object to their stay. In and around 1822, David Scott Esq., The Commissioner of Koch Behar first conceived the idea of Christianizing the Garo tribe of Assam. He wrote to Bayley, Secretary to the Government, “I am satisfied that nothing permanently good can be obtained by other means (than sending a missionary) and that, if we do not interfere on behalf of the poor Garo, they will soon become Hindu or half-Hindu. Secretary Bayley sent a most encouraging letter in reply closing with the words, “I do not think the favorable opportunity for making this interesting experiment should be lost “ Christian missionaries virtually held a license during British Raj to trade in human souls and to proselytize by force, fraud, inducement and deceit.

2) Theological deceit: Missionaries have spread the belief that the tribals of North East India had no religion. In fact, for most people of this region, belief in Supreme Being is a distinctive feature. He is the Creator and Sustainer of humans and the whole universe and is believed to be loving and benevolent (as against the jealous Christian God). They also believe in many secondary deities. The tribals also believe in the existence of malevolent spirits. They believe in the immortality of the soul and life after death. All religious rites are performed by functionaries like the Lyngdoh (Khasis), Putir (Ao), Puitham (Mizo), Kamal nokma (Garo) and so on. Pioneer Christian missionaries like JH Lorrain adopted the term ‘Pathian’ used by the Mizos for their supreme Spirit to indicate the Christian God. Jesus was presented as “Christus Victor” or Jesus Christ the Conqueror (of all evil spirits).The belief of the Ao Naga people in life after death was linked to the life, death and resurrection of Jesus. To this day, missionaries use theological deceit for conversion. They have been guilty of substituting the names of Ram and Krishna in the popular baar-geets of legendary Assamese Saint Sanardeva with the name of Jesus. When the local Vaishnava Sabha reacted angrily, they had to eat crow and withdraw the offending stanzas.

3) Deceit by other means: ‘Economic conversions’ are carried out by placing “miracle boxes” in local churches. The gullible villager writes out a request – a loan, a pucca house, fees for the son’s schooling. A few weeks later, the miracle happens. And the whole family converts, making others in the village follow suit.

4) Education: The introduction of Western education was the main missionary approach to convert the Naga into Christianity. After independence, the Roman Catholics also gained entry into Nagaland hitherto denied by the Protestant British. The key to their success was their educational policy. Father Thomas Menamparambil writes: “The boarding houses in Shillong, Gauhati and Dibrugarh have played an important role in the evangelization of the region. They formed lay leaders and well-instructed religious teachers. Every year, a good number from among the senior students were baptized. It was precisely these youngsters that helped plant the church in the Garo Hills, in Nagaland, Manipur and to some extent in Mizoram. The experience of the Baptists in the Orphan school in Nowgong was to repeat itself again and again in dozens of our institutions to our own day “

5) Imposition of Roman script: The first thing that missionaries did when beginning work among a new tribe was to reduce its language to writing. This the missionaries did to enable people to read the Bible. At first, for the Khasi and Garo languages, the Bengali / Assamese script was used but was later given up in favor of Roman. From 1970, the Church openly championed the use of the Roman script for the language of the tribals of Tripura and Boros of Assam. This even prompted two Marxist ministers in the Tripura government, Dashrath Deb ad Ranjit Deb Burman to characterize the demand of Roman script for the Kokroboak region of Tripura as “communal politics”. The imposition of the Roman script has on occasion been at gunpoint. On august 21, 2000, terrorists of the Church backed National Democratic Front of Bodoland gunned down Shri Bineshwar Brahma, president of the Bodo Sahitya Sabha. His only crime was that he favored the use of Devanagari script for the Bodo language. It is significant that English is an official language in Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland and Tripura.

6) Self–alienation: The tribals after conversion to Christianity start abstaining from their indigenous festivals because now these festivals and rituals are not his. Hence we see the Christian Khasis of Meghalaya do not take part in the Sad–Suk–Mynstem festival or the Nongkrem festival. Those converted to Christianity in Arunachal Pradesh have stated distancing themselves or are made to do so, from festivals like the Solung or Mopin. The Christian Garos remain cut off from the Wangla festival dance. The phenomenon continues throughout the tribal population. They remain aloof from their traditional dances, accept western names for their children, start wearing western clothes, sing western music and so on.

7) Circumventing laws: Missionary activities were very marginal, or almost nil, till 1962 in Arunachal Pradesh. However, these anti-national and divisive forces, in different names and forms, have been working through various agencies in Assam–Arunachal Pradesh border. Gradually and stealthily, they gained entry into Arunachal Pradesh with the help of the few local Arunachali students who had studied in Christian Missionary schools is Assam and Meghalaya and got converted there. By 1970, almost 8% of the people along the Assam – Arunachal border had got converted to Christianity. However, they could not very actively engage in proselytizing Arunachal in a big way due to the Innerline Permit Restrictions on entry for non–Arunachalis imposed by the government. But a sizeable number of simple people of Arunachal had been lured away into Christian fold, in many causes, through material temptations including offer of money, and by threats. The Church has also engaged a number of local people as paid agents to carry on pro-Christian propaganda through various means, fair and foul.

8) Harassment and ostracism: Many reports have come of how Church congregations use harassment, ostracism and other forms of force to increase their flock. Non-converted portions of a family land into disputes with neo-Christian portions over funeral customs, ownership of land and other matters and this result in clashes between groups which newspapers promptly label as anti–Christian acts, whereas these are often clashes between converted and non-converted tribals.

9) Extortion: The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), a terrorist organization has two main factions. Both the factions are headed by Christians and get financial support from World Council of Churches, a missionary organization. China provides arms and ammunitions to both the factions. The NSCN has its offices in New York, Geneva and Hague which display boards with legend ‘Peoples Republic of Nagaland’. It has twice raised its demand for an independent nation in the United Nations. The NSCN has its own government which collects money from the local people. One third of the salaries of the government servants is taken away as Nagaland Tax before disbursement. Most of the banks in Nagaland have closed down because of the huge sums extracted by this outfit. The letterheads and stamps of this unofficial government read ‘Nagaland for Christ’. Most of the terrorist organizations in the entire region follow this pattern. The Church in the North-East is also known to be associated with smuggling across the borders and circulation of fake currency notes. In December 1998, Bedang Tamjen, a JemiNaga missionary was arrested for making fake currency notes.
10) Conversion at gun–point: The Baptist Church in Tripura was set up by missionaries from New Zealand 60 years ago .It won only a few thousand converts until 1980 when a mass scale ethnic riot was engineered by the Church in which systematic ethnic cleansing of Hindu and Buddhist tribals was initiated. Thousands of women were raped and kidnapped and forced to convert to Christianity. The terrorists receive military aid from extremist Christian groups in Australia and New Zealand. They also have ongoing exchanges with Islamic terrorist and ISI who push in arms from the Bangladeshi border.

In Tripura, the tribals constitute 30 percent of the State population, and 10 percent of this group had been converted to Christianity by 1991. These Christianized tribals are trying to convert the Hindu tribals forcibly to Christianity often getting the help of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT), a Christian terror group founded in December 1989. About 90 percent of the top ranking NLFT cadres are Christians. NLFT has further links with the Inter Services Intelligences Agency (ISI), Pakistan’s external intelligence agency and its counter part in Bangladesh, the Directorate General of Field Intelligence (DGFI).
During 1997-98, NLFT leaders are reported to have visited Pakistan to receive training and arms from the ISI. The ISI had allegedly arranged the passport and visas for the NLFT leaders. According to Tripura Police, the NLFT has also linkages with the Nagaland-based National Socialist Council of Nagaland- Isak–Muivah (NSCN-IM), the Manipur– ased Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which is active in Assam. Since its inception the NLFT has been engaged in an armed struggle to carve out a separate Christian nation – Tripura. The forcible conversions are accompanied by murders of Hindu priests in the area, forcible bans on Hindu festivities, abductions and killings.

The backing of the Baptist church right from the beginning has enabled this organization to spread its base. Due to its terrorist activities, the organization was banned by the government in 1997 but it continued its operations from across the Bangladesh border. The priests of the Baptist church supply arms and ammunitions to these terrorist rebels.
Nagmanlal Halam, the secretary of the Noapara Baptist Church in Tripura was arrested by CRPF in April 2000 on charges of aiding insurgents and possessing a large quantity of explosives including 60 gelatin sticks, 5Kg of potassium, 2Kg of sulfur and other ingredients for making powerful bombs. Two junior members of the same church, who had been arrested earlier, tipped the police off about the explosives which were meant for terrorist organization like the NLFT. Mr. Halam confessed to buying and supplying explosives to the NLFT.
Another church official, Jatna Koloi, who was also arrested, admitted that he received training in guerrilla warfare at an NLFT base (8). It is now apparent that the pattern of forced conversions at gunpoint are irrefutably linked to the Baptist Church in Tripura. The NLFT is accused of forcing Tripura’s indigenous tribes to become Christians and give up Hindu forms of worship in areas under their control.

For decades Tripura’s indigenous tribal population has been dragged out of their homes and forced to convert to Christianity under threat of violence. Whenever any of the tribals organize Hindu festivals or rituals, the terrorist groups attack to desecrate and kill the participants. There have been incidents of issuing a ban on the Hindu festivals of Durga Pooja and Saraswati Pooja. The NLFT manifesto says that they want to expand what they describe as the kingdom of God and Christ in Tripura. The hill tribe ‘Jamatiya‘ worship in the month of March their traditional god ‘Gadiya‘, who is supposed to be an incarnation of Lord Shiva. The terrorists have issued an order that the ‘Gadiya‘ be prayed on the Christmas day instead.

Hundreds of the RSS volunteers were attacked, threatened and blackmailed. Several of them were murdered and a number of them were kidnapped and held hostage by the Christian terrorists. In August 2000, Swami Shantikali Maharaj, the famous Hindu sage known for his social services was killed by the terrorists. In December 2000, Lavkumar Jamatiya, the priest of the ‘Jamatiya‘ tribe was killed, two Hindu temples and one Buddhist temple were destroyed and order was issued to end all non–Christian methods of praying. In the year 2001, there were 826 terrorist attacks in Tripura in which 405 persons were killed and 481 cases of kidnapping by the rebels. The case of Jamatiya tribals provides a telling example. These tribals have strong spiritual leaders and a network of social service organizations headed by their religious leaders. These indigenous sects are neither exclusive nor expansionist. The Baptist Church has always failed miserably in its conversion efforts with regard to this well-knit community.

Hence, it is no wonder that the NLFT has made Jamatiya institutions and their religious leaders the targets of their attacks. In the August of 2000, religious leaders of the Jamatiya community like Jaulushmoni Jamatiya and Shanit Kumar Tripura were killed by the NLFT, and Jamatiya families were uprooted from their homelands and made refugees. The death threats issued by the NLFT to the inmates of these institutions have already forced the closure of 11 Jamatiya institutions like schools and orphanages, set up by the slain religious leaders in various parts of Tripura.

Shorn of its mask of love and compassion, the true color of Christianity is evident in all its nakedness in the North East. Fortunately, the tribals are realizing that their Christianization has led to loss of identity and self-alienation. They are slowly reviving their ancient traditions and customs. Our tribal brethren need our active support to overthrow the yoke of Christianity. Are we going to respond to their call?

NLFT - The Christian Al-Qaeda

I came to bring not peace but a sword of Jesus Christ
For seven-year-old Shreema, 13th Jan 2002 was a special Sunday. All through the year, the girl had awaited the dawn of this day. For, that was the day one goes out and purchases new clothes, new toys and sweets, as the next day would be Makar Sankranthi -- the harvest festival celebrated throughout India. The Singicherra Bazar was bustling with activity. Like Shreema's family there were many people looking forward to a happy Makar Sankranthi. But they didn't realise that they were violating a fatwa issued by the Baptist Church-created Christian Al-Qaeda, the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT). Nor did they know that they would pay with their lives for celebrating a heathen festival of their motherland.
Shreema would never again celebrate Makar Sankranthi. She died, along with sixteen others, on the spot as 13 terrorists of the NLFT encircled the people shopping for the festival and fired indiscriminately1. The soldiers of Christ have done again in Tripura what they have been doing for centuries to heathens throughout the world.
The Baptist Church of Tripura is not just the ideological mentor of the NLFT; it also supplies the NLFT with arms and ammunition for the soldiers of the holy crusade2. Never mind that the holy war involves killing infants and torching the huts of 'heathen Hindoos'. The NLFT does all these to bring to the infidels the peace and love of Christ. So, when Nagmanlal Halam, secretary of the Noapara Baptist Church in Tripura, was arrested by the Tripura police he had rather curious tools for evangelisation, which included along with the gospel 50 gelatin sticks, 5 kg of potassium and 2 kg of sulphur and other ingredients for making explosives. Mr. Halam confessed that his activities for the saving the heathen souls involved buying and supplying explosives to the NLFT over the past two years. Another church official, Jatna Koloi, who was also arrested, admitted that he received training in guerrilla warfare at an NLFT base last year. Surely, gelatin and AK-47s have more efficiency when it comes to bringing the light of the only revealed truth to the disbelievers suffering in 'spiritual darkness'. Those who are in doubt can check it out with another great light-bearer of the other 'only true book', Osama bin Laden (that is, when and if the prophet of terror is captured).
The Baptist Church of Tripura was initially set up by proselytizers from New Zealand 60 years ago. Despite their efforts, even until 1980, only a few thousand people in Tripura had converted to Christianity. Then the Church used one of its most efficient and time-tested weapons of evangelisation -- creating racial and ethnic divide among the people. In the aftermath of one of the worst ethnic riots, engineered by the Church3, the NLFT was born -- but not without the midwife role of the Baptist Church. From its very inception, the NLFT has been advancing the cause of Christianity through armed persuasion. Every trace of indigenous culture is being eliminated through violent means. Every resisting group is made to bleed its way to extinction.
The case of Jamatya tribals provides a telling example. These tribals have strong spiritual leaders and a network of social service organisations headed by their religious leaders. These indigenous sects are neither exclusive nor expansionist. The Baptist Church has always failed miserably in its conversion efforts with regard to this well-knit community. Hence, it is no wonder that the NLFT has made Jamatya institutions and their religious leaders the targets of their attacks. In the August of 2000, religious leaders of the Jamatya community like Jaulushmoni Jamatya and Shanti Kumar Tripura were killed by the NLFT, and Jamatya families were uprooted from their homelands and made refugees. The death threats issued by the NLFT to the inmates of these institutions have already forced the closure of 11 Jamatya institutions like schools and orphanages, set up by the slain religious leaders in various parts of Tripura4. Interestingly, these tribals are not close-minded fanatics. For one thing, they do not mind teaching the theory of evolution in their schools.
The greatest challenge to the Bible inspired mission of the NLFT comes from the Sangh Parivar's Banbasi Kalyan Kendra. The dedicated life workers of RSS have started empowering the tribals by running many educational institutions which while empowering them through imparting secular technical education also retain their tribal cultural and spiritual identity. Rather than making them disown their roots, the Kendra made the tribals feel proud of their culture. It even conducts national level tribal sports festivals. If the NLFT is to carve out a kingdom for Christ out of the secular republic of India, it has to make sure that the Kendra activities are stopped at all costs. In July 2000, armed NLFT militants torched a residential school and students hostel run by the Seva Mission in the remote Ananda Bazar area of North Tripura5. They had also taken hostage four RSS life workers. These RSS workers were all in their sixties. The crime committed by these old men was that they had dared to run educational institutions for tribals while preserving the tribals' culture. Later, all four were killed by the NLFT.
The NLFT has been an active partner of the Baptist Church in winning converts to the Christian creed. They have killed tribal priests to threaten communities and effect mass conversions. But those tactics have obviously backfired. In 2001 alone, the NLFT killed more than 20 Hindus who refused to 'accept the love of Christ'. They also torched to death a Hindu family sleeping in a hut6. In 2001, community chiefs and religious heads of 19 tribes formed the 'Tribal Culture Protection Committee' to counter the threat posed by the NLFT7. Despite the NLFT taking all possible steps to enforce conversions, the conversions are still slow. Frustrated, the NLFT has now begun an all out war against Hindu tribals. They have issued fatwas against infidel activities. These fatwas prohibit people from celebrating festivals like Durga Pooja and Makar Sankranthi, listening to Indian music, watching Indian TV channels and films, and prohibit women from wearing bangles or sporting bindis, etc. Just a year before the NLFT started all these atrocities in India, the Southern Baptist Church of the United States of America had given a clarion call to bring the light of the gospel to �millions of Hindus and Jews lost in the darkness� of their religions8.
Shreema, the seven-year-old girl from Tripura, died with bullets pumped into her tender body. Her crime was that she violated the Christian fatwa which prohibited her from celebrating an Indian festival. She was not just a victim of barbaric terrorism but she is also a martyr for Indian culture, a culture that has preserved thousands of tribal customs from barbaric persecution. Yet, she will not make it to the glossy covers of the weekly magazines of English speaking Indian media. Unsubstantiated, fabricated stories of Hindu fundamentalists (an oxymoron) killing Christian priests have been making their headlines. However, these fabrications have their use. They do help in the covering up of such acts of Christian love like killing in cold blood a seven- year-old girl or burning a family to death.
References:
1. 16 shot dead by NLFT in Tripura � PTI, January 13, 2002.
2. Church backing Tripura rebels � BBC, April 18, 2000.
3. India's North-East Resurgence: Ethnicity, Insurgency and Governance, Development by B.G. Vargheese, 1996, p.175.
4. Militants raid Hindu Ashram � The Telegraph, December 5, 2000.
5. NLFT curb on Hindu institutions � The Telegraph, September 14, 2000.
6. Three killed by Tripura rebels � BBC, April 14, 2000.
7. Tribals unite against conversions in Tripura, Syed Zarir Hussain, www.rediff.com/ news/2001/aug/02trip.htm
8. Southern Baptists target Hindus, Julia Lieblich, The Associated Press, October 21, 1999.

The Northeast: Infiltration Woes

The Delhi High Court, taking serious note of infiltration of Bangladeshi nationals into India, served notices, on April 26, 2006, to the Chief Secretaries of the five bordering States, West Bengal, Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya and Mizoram, to depute their respective counsels to appraise the Court on the action taken by their State Governments in this regard. A division bench of the High Court, comprising Justice M.K. Sharma and Justice Reva Khetrapal, reportedly said that illegal Bangladeshi migrants had been infiltrating into India in hordes and should be deported immediately.

Much has been talked about illegal migration from Bangladesh into States like Assam and Tripura and its impact on the demography of these States. But there has been little systematic study of the problem even in these States, and none whatsoever in States such as Meghalaya. Worse, States such as Manipur and Nagaland, which do not share a border with Bangladesh, but which have already been subjected to the negative impact of trends in illegal migration, are entirely outside the scope of current scrutiny. Data is conspicuous by its absence, but anecdotal evidence is abundant.

In Manipur, for instance, illegal migration from Bangladesh via Assam is adding to the complexities of the existing problem of Chin infiltration from Myanmar. In late April, 2003, Bangladeshi immigrants in Jiribam sub-division of the Imphal East District teamed up with a local Islamist militant outfit, the People’s United Liberation Front (PULF), to avenge the death of an illegal migrant. At least 300 Bengali Hindus were hounded out of their villages.

Such has been the scale of Bangladeshi immigration into Manipur that an influential civil society organization, the United Committee Manipur (UCM), published a 231-page report, ‘Influx of Migrants into Manipur: A Threat to the Indigenous Ethnic People’ in December 2005, indicating that migrants from Myanmar, Bangladesh and Nepal would, in 30 years’ time, “either marginalise or wipe out all the ethnic groups” in the State.

Similarly, Bangladeshi migrants in Nagaland now constitute a serious threat to the demographic balance of the State. Nagaland, in the 2001 Census, registered the highest population growth rate (64.41 per cent) in the country, and a major proportion of this increase can be ascribed to illegal migration. All the manual works, construction labour, taxi drivers, rickshaw pullers and cultivation are largely done by Bangladeshi migrants. According to one estimate, Bangladeshi nationals run almost half of the shops in Dimapur, the commercial hub of the State, and in the capital, Kohima. The National Socialist Council of Nagaland – Khaplang (NSCN-K) has been reportedly issuing temporary work permits to the immigrants and has even set a permissible number of immigrants per district. Many of the illegal immigrants have married local Naga women.

Tripura, which shares an 856 kilometre border with Bangladesh, has been widely acknowledged to have been transformed from a tribal majority State into a tribal minority State in less than six decades, and this is now an irreversible feature of the State’s demography. There is ample evidence that illegal migration continues to take place in the State, though the scale fluctuates with changes in the political dispensations in Bangladesh. In addition, the porous border also facilitates the movement of militants, criminals, smugglers and drug peddlers, mostly acting under the protection or at the behest of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) officers and personnel. Some incidents reported in 2006 are illustrative:

• January 9: A Bangladeshi smuggler, Mohammad Mahir Miah, was arrested along with 13 packets of brown sugar and aluminum foil by the Border Security Force (BSF) in the bordering area of Bagulpur under the Narsingarh police station in the West Tripura District.
  
• January 16: Two unidentified Bangladeshi infiltrators were killed by Border Security Force (BSF) personnel at the border village of Kumarghat in North Tripura District.
  
• January 25: A Bangladeshi forest ranger was arrested with a gang of timber smugglers by BSF personnel from a reserve forest in the Khowai sub-division of West Tripura district.
  
• February 4: A Bangladeshi national, Suban Miah, suspected to be involved in the April 16, 2005, killing of a BSF officer, Assistant Commandant Jeevan Kumar, was arrested at a place under the Lankamura Border outpost.
  
• April 19: At least 13 Bangladeshi nationals, including seven women and six children, were arrested by BSF personnel while infiltrating from the international border at different places under Lankamura outpost in the West Tripura District. 

As recently as May 20, 2006, BSF personnel pushed back a group of Bangladesh Rifles jawans who were escorting unidentified men to measure land inside Indian territory near the Indo-Bangladesh border along the Jaintia Hills District. Police sources said the men, claiming to be landlords, came to Lakuna and Amki (under Amlarem sub-division) villages and started measuring land, which they claimed, belonged to Bangladesh (both India and Bangladesh have been claiming a 12-acre stretch in Lakuna and Amki villages on the border).

Meghalaya, which shares a 443 kilometre border with Bangladesh, has served as a traditional route for Bangladesh-based militants operating in India’s Northeast. The Garo Hills have also provided significant routes for drugs and arms smuggling. Little, however, is known about the scale of infiltration of Bangladeshis into the State. According to one estimate, illegal migrants, outnumber locals in the Jaintia coal belt. In fact, official inaction in containing infiltration is forcing locals to arbitrarily adopt harsh measures. Thus, on March 6, 2006, villagers from Nongjri-Umnuih-Nongshken area along the India-Bangladesh border in the East Khasi Hills district announced a pogrom under the call, “Gun down a Bangladeshi criminal and collect Rupees 3,000”, in protest against the alleged killing of people and looting of agricultural produce by Bangladeshi infiltrators. Such vigilantism threatens to grow in the wake of a spate of criminal incidents involving Bangladeshis. Some recent incidents include:

• February 13: The Superintendent of Bholaganj Land Custom Station in the East Khasi Hills District, J. Das, was abducted by unidentified Bangladeshis. Das’ dead body was subsequently recovered from Bholaganj along the Bangladesh border fencing area on February 20.
  
• April 9: A Bangladeshi infiltrator was killed by local villagers in the West Garo Hills area.
  
• April 10: A Bangladeshi infiltrator was shot dead by the BSF personnel in the West Garo Hills area.
  
• April 16 : The eastern zone unit of the Khasi Students Union (KSU) ‘captured’ at Umtrew in the Ri Bhoi district at least 20 Bangladeshi labourers who were reportedly brought by a person with the advice of an engineer working with the North Eastern Indira Gandhi Regional Institute of Health and Medical Sciences in Shillong. 

Available data indicates that the State Government’s efforts at containing the ongoing infiltration have been handicapped by poor detection and an even poorer record of prosecutions and convictions. Meghalaya Home Minister, H. Donkupar R. Lyngdoh, while responding to a supplementary question raised by a Congress legislator, Robert Garnett Lyngdoh, on March 21, 2006, informed the State Legislative Assembly that 3,094 infiltrators were detained in 2001 out of which just 54 were prosecuted. In 2002, a total of 2,537 persons were detained on suspicion and 42 of them were convicted. In the 2003, the number of detentions was 2,157 and the conviction figure was 72. The detention figure in 2004 was 1,596 with just 18 convictions. Till March 2006, 1,463 persons had been detected as foreigners and 14 convicted.

The Central Forces haven’t fared any better. According to a status report submitted by the BSF before the Delhi High Court on May 22, just 31 Bangladeshi nationals were deported from Meghalaya between January and April 2006. None of the other States have yet filed a reply with the High Court, but a similar scenario is believed to prevail as far as the other States are concerned.

Detection, however, can hardly be the solution to the infiltration problem. Deportation of such infiltrators remains a troublesome affair as Bangladesh continues to refuse to acknowledge the nationality of such illegal migrants, or to permit or accept their return to its territory. The Bangladeshi Press is, in fact, rife with reports that claim that the ‘BSF pushes in Indians to Bangladeshi territory’. And on many occasions such ‘pushed in’ people are pushed out by BDR personnel in no time. There can be little doubt that infiltration and other cross-border criminal enterprises need to be dealt on the border itself. And this further underlines the need for better border management of which border fencing is an integral part.

Fencing has been suggested as an effective method against infiltration worldwide, as the American example explicitly demonstrates. The United States House of Representatives passed a measure, (H.R. 4437) on December 16, 2005, that calls for 698 miles of border fencing to be built in five strategic locations along the international border with Mexico. The Senate on May 25, 2006, also passed a measure (S. 2611) to authorize 370 miles of new fencing. Currently, there are only about 75 miles of existing fence along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border. Border Patrol statistics reveal that these measures have had significant impact; the numbers of illegal aliens apprehended and amounts of narcotics seized have decreased drastically since fencing was installed.

Fencing has also been extremely effective in India, along the western borders, curbing the movement of militants and activities of smugglers and subversives. There is little reason to believe that such steps cannot be replicated along India’s eastern frontiers.

Indian attempts at fencing the borders with Bangladesh have, however, remained tardy, to say the least. Under Phase-I, which started as far back as 1986, 854 kilometres of fencing was erected, as on March 31, 2006. Another 1,448 kilometres of fencing was completed under Phase-II, which in fact aimed to fence 2,429 kilometres. Worse, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs, the 854 kilometre fence built in Phase-I has already been “damaged” at “most of the stretches” and thus, has “ceased to be effective in controlling illegal cross border activities”. The Ministry plans to start replacing the damaged fencing during 2006-07.

With political perspectives cloud the vision of the policy makers, and a high measure of administrative foot-dragging and incompetence, infiltration into the northeastern region can be expected to remain a serious problem in the foreseeable future.

Nagaland: Another Bangladeshi Destination

Unabated illegal immigration of Bangladeshis into Nagaland is emerging as a major problem in the State, threatening to assume proportions that have already disrupted populations and peace in the Northeastern neighbourhood. Better economic prospects and a shortage of local labour are compounded by a critical absence of mechanisms to prevent such an influx. Despite their serious demographic, economic, security and political ramifications on a tiny state like Nagaland, these developments continue to remain substantially outside the realm of the security discourse in the country. 


Nagaland does not share a direct land border with Bangladesh, but illegal migrants are infiltrating into the State from Assam, with which Nagaland shares a nearly 500-kilometre-long land border.

Areas around Dimapur town and the foothills along the Assam-Nagaland border have emerged as the prime targets of migration, spreading gradually thereafter into other distant locales. The very cosmopolitan nature of the Dimapur area makes detection of illegal migrants a difficult task. Worse, the illegal migrants are also in possession of valid official documents like ration cards and voter identity cards procured from the States of Assam or West Bengal, where these are available against a small bribe. The fact that Dimapur town and its surrounding areas are not covered under the Inner Line Permit (ILP) system, which prohibits all non-Naga outsiders (including Indian citizens) to settle in the area, is visibly being exploited by the immigrants before they trickle into other areas of the State.

Once in Nagaland, the illegal migrants manage to get absorbed in widely available occupations, including agricultural labour, domestic helps, rickshaw pullers, manual labourers in construction sites and shop attendants. Besides, a section among the locals patronize them by providing land for cultivation and temporary settlements. Bangladeshis, providing cheap labour, have become the preferred option, rather than the relatively expensive and inadequate pool of local workers.

Accurate estimates of the numbers of illegal migrants staying in Nagaland are not easy to come by. Available estimates vary between 75,000 and 300,000. Despite the absence of a precise figure, these estimates underscore the magnitude of the crisis in this tiny State, which has a total population of barely two million. Surprisingly, the Dimapur area alone is believed to have more than 100,000 illegal migrants. Way back in February 1999, the former Nagaland Chief Minister and currently the Governor of Goa, S.C. Jamir said that there were about 60,000 Bangladeshis illegally staying in Dimapur.

The continuing influx of illegal migrants has created a serious threat of destablisation in the State, with migrants progressively usurping the economic base of the Nagas. In major marketing areas of the State like Dimapur, they have already secured considerable influence in trade and commerce and this is expanding rapidly. Muslim migrants today run almost half of the shops in Dimapur, the biggest commercial hub of the State. In 2003, a local newspaper editorial noted succinctly, “There is no denying the fact that on any Muslim religious day, at least half of the shops in Kohima and some seventy five per cent in Dimapur, remain closed. The point is that this is a clear indication of how much the migrants have been able to make an impact on trading.”

A survey conducted by the Nagaland State Directorate of Agriculture in 2003 revealed that about 71.73 per cent of the total business establishments in the State were controlled and run by ‘non-locals’ including both legal and illegal migrants. According to the report, out of the 23,777 shops in the State, the local people own only 6,722 shops (that is 28.27 per cent). While the report made no effort to separately identify illegal migrants among the shop owners, there is a large body of supplementary evidence that suggests their sizeable presence. Illegal migrants are also acquiring land and other immovable properties in collusions with their local sympathizers. .

The impact of Bangladeshi migrants is also visible in the unstable demographic profile of the State. With a population of 19,88,636 under the Census of 2001, Nagaland recorded the highest rate of population growth in India, from 56.08 per cent in 1981-1991 to 64.41 per cent in the decade, 1991-2001. Significantly, the population growth was been uniform throughout the State. Several areas in the Dimapur and Wokha Districts bordering Assam have recorded exceptionally high population growth. Wokha district, bordering the Golaghat District of Assam, recorded the highest population growth of 95.01 per cent between 1991 and 2001, the highest figure for any district in the entire country. Evidently, the silent and unchecked influx of illegal migrants in the District, has played a crucial role in this abnormal growth.

Migrants marry locals to secure legal and social acceptability for their stay in the State. As a result, a new community locally called ‘Sumias’ has emerged in some parts of the State. These ‘Sumias’ are estimated in the several thousands and are concentrated mainly in the Dimapur and Kohima Districts. There are rising fears among locals that voters’ list are now being doctored to accommodate the “Sumias” as well as other migrants. These apprehensions have been further reinforced by the fact that, as the Census 2001 records, the population of Muslims in the State has more than trebled in the past decade, from 20,642 in 1991 to more than 75,000 in 2001. Illegal migrants are widely believed to account for an overwhelming proportion of this recorded increase.

Worried by such developments the vocal Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) has sought to impose restrictions on Naga girls marrying illegal migrants. On August 10, 2003, a Naga student leader said that the NSF has already imposed a ban on Naga girls marrying illegal migrants from Bangladesh. However, he also regretted the fact that the ban could not be strictly implemented. On some occasions, the student body also claimed to have ‘deported’ illegal settlers from the State. Unfortunately, those deported reportedly came back after a brief stay in neighbouring Assam. The State Government has also claimed to have deported about 20,000 infiltrators between 1994 and 1997, but most of them were again reported to have come back. In any event, such claims of ‘deportation’ have little meaning as they involve nothing more than dumping the illegal migrants from one Indian State to another.

The presence of large number of foreign nationals has also created a vulnerable constituency for exploitation by hostile Bangladeshi and Pakistani Intelligence services. The threat has been further compounded with the emergence of several Islamist extremist groups in the region, who secure support from Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence and the Bangladeshi Directorate General of Forces Intelligence.

The debate on migration from Bangladesh has been politicized in the past, contributing directly to demographic destabilization in Nagaland and the wider Northeastern neighbourhood. Successive Central and State Governments have proved ineffective in formulating workable measures to stop the flow of illegal migrants into the country in general and the Nagaland in particular, and this neglect is extracting an increasing price in social, economic and security terms as time goes by, and threatens to secure the dimensions of a major internal security crisis in the foreseeable future.

Manipur: The Nexus Again

The nexus between establishment politicians and militants would be tragic if it had not become almost routine. On August 17, 2007, Manipur Police personnel raided the official residences of three Members of the State’s Legislative Assembly (MLAs), identified as W Brajabidhu, Bijoy Koijam, K. Meghachandra and a former MLA, N Sovakiran. These raids led to the arrest of 12 militants belonging to different insurgent groups operating in Manipur. An M-16 rifle, a 9mm pistol, live ammunition and a number of extortion notes were recovered from the house of one of the MLAs. Addressing a subsequent Press Conference, the State’s Director General of Police (DGP), Y. Joykumar Singh, said that the MLAs, all belonging to the Congress Party, were present in their houses during the raid and were unapologetic about the arrests. The MLAs later described charges of collusion as baseless. Till the writing of this report, no action had been taken against the errant politicians.

For years, Manipur has been wracked by an unending militancy, with some 15 active outfits presently operating in both its valley and hill areas. While militancy has shown signs of decline in some States of the Northeast, Manipur’s tryst with militant violence remains unrelenting, impacting on all the nine Districts of the State. For two successive years, 2005 and 2006, Manipur has been the most violent theatre of the conflict in the Northeast with 410 and 311 fatalities respectively. Assam, with 11 times the population, and 3.5 times the land area, accounted for 254 and 242 fatalities over the same period. Available data portends an equally dreadful year 2007. According to the Union Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), the first six months of the current year recorded 184 fatalities, including 40 civilian and 25 security force (SF) deaths. The Institute for Conflict Management database indicates a total of 295 fatalities till October 10, 2007.

The vacuum in governance is both a consequence and cause of militancy in Manipur. The civil administration has ceased to function across vast stretches of the State and intermittent military operations have had little impact on the level of militancy. The militants have carved out several more or less ‘liberated zones’ within the State and also operate from neighbouring Myanmar’s Sagaing Division, carry out attacks targeting civilians, SF personnel and Government servants, and run an enveloping extortion network across the State – extending right into the capital city – with impunity.

Certainly, politicians in the State are under tremendous pressure, and militant attack on leaders and party workers have been a recurrent phenomenon. Over the past months, such incidents have included:

• June 10: A girl, identified as Nabizam alias Baby alias Boilar, sustained injuries in a grenade attack by unidentified militants at the residence of a former legislator, Abdul Salam, at Hatta Golapati in the Imphal East District.
• July 22: At least six armed militants waylaid the Wangoi legislator, Salam Joy Singh and his five-man Police escort at Irom Meijrao, under Wangoi Police station in the Imphal West district. The militants overpowered the escort personnel and decamped with their service weapons.
• July 29: Unidentified militants fired some rounds at the residence of the legislator Thangjam Nandakishore in connection with a monetary demand at Thambalkhong in the Imphal East District.
• August 2: Suspected militants hurled a bomb at the residence of legislator Joy Singh at Kakwa in the Imphal West District, though no causality was reported. Singh had objected to the militants’ demand for a percentage of the MLA’s Area Development Fund.
• August 7: A group of ten suspected militants attacked the convoy of State Education Minister L. Jayentakumar, and MLAs, Dr. M. Ratankumar and Th. Lokeshor, near Khudengthabi and Lokchao on the Imphal-Moreh section of National Highway (NH) – 39, though the targets escaped unhurt.
• August 8: Suspected militants hurled a grenade at the private residence of Congress Party MLA, Moirangthem Oken Singh, at Heirok in the Thoubal District. The grenade landed on the outhouse but did not explode.
• August 20: Suspected militants hurled a hand grenade at the residence of a legislator, L. Nandakumar Singh of the Congress party, at Nagamapal in the Imphal West District. The grenade failed to explode.
• September 14: Unidentified militants attacked the residence of MLA and Chairman of the Manipur Pollution Control Board, E. Dijamani Singh, at Hiyanglam in the Thoubal District. No injury was reported.

In militancy-ridden Manipur, buying peace with the militants is commonplace and is seen across the political spectrum simply as a strategy of survival. The nexus between politicians and militants is, consequently, pervasive. As former Manipur Governor Ved Marwah expressed it, "There are hardly any politicians in Manipur of any stature who do not have links with the insurgent groups."

In December 2005, the then Army Chief J.J. Singh stirred a hornet’s nest by claiming that Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh had paid a ‘donation’ of INR Five million to the Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) and INR 10 million to the People’s Liberation Army (PLA). The Chief Minister and the KYKL rejected the allegation. However, while describing the charge as "forgery, cheating and political victimization", the KYKL admitted that it receives financial help from ‘different people’, including politicians, though "not as much as INR Five million from a single individual".

In addition to Ibobi Singh, there is a long list of politicians, including Chief Ministers, who have been similarly accused of buying or attempting to buy peace with the militants. In the late 1980s, the then Manipur Governor, General K.V. Krishna Rao, accused then Chief Minister Rishang Keishing of contributing INR Three million to the coffers of the then undivided National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN). Keishing’s linkages with the Naga militants found mention in another State Governor’s report, when Lieutenant General V.K. Nayyar accused him as well as another senior State politician, R.K. Dorendro, of financing the NSCN. Keishing, during another stint as Chief Minister in the mid 1990s, was accused of supplying uniforms to the Isak-Muivah faction of the NSCN (NSCN-IM). Investigations into this incident were allegedly hushed up and the blame was eventually pushed off on to a Manipur Rifles Commandant. In 2000, at least five State Ministers were accused of reportedly contributing funds and official vehicles to unnamed militant outfits and even participated in the funerals of militants killed in encounters with the SFs. A State Government inquiry was ordered, but was never completed.

Both politics and militancy in the Northeast are rooted in ethnicity and the nexus between the two power centres is inherently linked to such primordial loyalties. Both militants and politicians share a common support base. Instead of choosing to confront each other and erode the support base, both tend to collaborate and benefit from the prevailing state of affairs. In 2003, Manipur Power Minister Phungzathang, belonging to the Zomi tribe, provided two vehicles and a sum of INR 260,000 to the militants of the Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA). Similarly, the Naga MLAs in Manipur have often openly spoken in favour of the NSCN-IM’s demand for the merger of Naga-inhabited areas of the State with Nagaland. These politicians have periodically led delegations to the highest echelons in New Delhi in support of these demands.

New Delhi’s intermittent attempts at breaking the nexus display a lack of sincerity. In 1997, an ‘action plan’ drawn up by the MHA, following then Prime Minister I.K. Gujral's visit to the Northeast, proposed a vigilance system to monitor the politician-militant nexus in the region. In 2001, Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee decided to set up a judicial inquiry into the charges of the politician-militant nexus in the region. Nothing has been heard of either ‘initiative’ since the respective announcements. In August 2007, reports unveiled another of New Delhi’s proposed mechanisms to counter the nexus and the militant extortion network. The proposed mechanism involves setting up of local units of the Enforcement Directorate (An agency under the Ministry of Finance, which investigates financial irregularities) and in coordination with the banking sector, to evolve an anti-dote to the thriving problem. It remains to be seen whether this new proposal will have any eventual impact on the ground, or whether it will go the way of its predecessors.

The nexus between politicians and militants has conveniently been described as a natural corollary to Manipur’s thriving militancy. Notwithstanding occasional action by the enforcement agencies – as in the present raids and arrests – these linkages have sustained militancy for decades, providing the militants a steady source of finance and at least some safety from SF operations. Stringent punitive action could have been a decisive deterrent to such alliances. Regrettably, errant politicians have, so far, retained complete immunity against the ‘long arm of the law’.