Anti-national Promise

One can only be astonished at how the Congress can go about promising illegal migrants from Bangladesh in Assam that their stay in the State will be protected and that they will not be sent back to where they came from. Most people realize that the task of deporting all illegal migrants from Bangladesh to their country might be an impossible task, but this does not warrant the need to make highly anti-national promises about what the Congress intends to do about them or how the party intends to legitimize their continued presence in our country. The Congress had ruled India and Assam for the longest number of years, and the party must take responsibility for the gross injustice it has done to the country by permitting millions of illegal migrants from Bangladesh to remain in the country for decades and to get their names entered in the electoral roll of the country so that the Congress could have a major illegal vote bank. However, it is in no position to make any illegal or anti-national promises about major demographic issues considering that the party has only 44 members in the Lok Sabha. So it has resorted to promises to Bangladeshis that can be honoured only if it has a way getting back to power in 2019. Since this does not seem very likely, the Congress must wait till 2024 to try and legitimize the presence of about 60 million Bangladeshis living illegally in our country and voting in our elections. By then there could be many significant changes in the number and status of all the Bangladeshis living illegally in India. One could be achieved through the removal of their names from the voters’ list so that they cannot aspire to political power. The issues related to the illegal presence of millions of Bangladeshis could have and should have been discussed between the Home Ministers of the two countries when they had an extended discussion recently. However, going by past experience, one can make a safe bet that nothing of the sort happened.