“My grandfather came to Assam from Mymensingh, Bangladesh during the British rule. Despite that, I am called an illegal Bangladeshi,” said 55-year-old Hasim Ali, who along with many others was waiting for some daily work at a place named Hatigaon of Guwahati, the capital of Indian State of Assam. “I don’t know why,” he said on August 12 when asked about the reasons behind it, adding, “All Muslims are called illegal Bangladeshis.” Manik Ali, a 25-year-old youth, was approached on the same day near Dispur Press Club. “Our family has been living near Tezpur, 175 kilometres northeast of Guwahati, for three generations. I speak Assamese and hardly can speak Bangla. Even then, we are called illegal Bangladeshis,” he said.
Rafique Ahmed, a class nine student of a school at Naogaon, a town north of Guwahati, told this correspondent on August 13, “I am an Indian and can only speak Assamese. Still, some of my friends call me Bangladeshi.”
“I don’t know why,” he said with a long breath. “My forefathers came to Assam from Fulbaria, Mymensingh in 1891,” said a retired school teacher from North Lakhinpur further north of Tezpur.
“Yet, people generalised us as Bangladeshis. I don’t know when we will be considered Assamese and Indian,” he said, requesting anonymity.
“My family settled in Assam from Noakhali centuries ago, but still we are called Bangladeshis. We cannot avoid this,” said a Hindu gentleman at his early 40’s in Biswanath Chariali, 230 kilometres northeast of Guwahati. This vexing issue related to alleged ‘Bangladeshi migration or infiltration’, has been dodging Assam for several decades and creating a divide in the society.
The issue is made further complex when allegation is brought by politicians that not few rather ‘millions of illegal Bangladeshis’ are living in the state.
While visiting Assam, the largest State in the north-eastern India with over three crores people, from August 12 till August 16, this correspondent made repeated efforts to find a single Bangladeshi, who entered Assam illegally after March 24, 1971, the cut-off date under the Assam Accord signed in 1985. According to the Accord, which was ratified by the parliament, anyone who has documents dated after this date will be considered a non-citizen and is liable to be expelled from the country.
About 34 per cent of the Assam’s population are Muslims, making them, according to some, the single largest ethnic entity in Assam, which makes indigenous Assamese people and Bangla-speaking Hindus feel somewhat ‘threatened’.
While speaking to Assamese politicians, academicians, journalists and researchers, no one could provide this correspondent with any figure of ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ living in the State. It depends upon who is being asked this question, they said, adding that indigenous Assamese and some Bangla-speaking Hindus will say millions while Bangla-speaking Muslims will say very few.
This issue is related mostly to Assam’s internal matter having political, ethnic, linguistic and cultural elements, said the experts, adding that a fear is perhaps working in the minds of indigenous Assamese people that they may become minorities due to the ‘rapid growth of the Muslim population’.
As many of the Muslims are poverty-stricken and lag behind educationally, they are not that aware of family planning, they said. Some even find religious element in this protracted problem, they added.
The experts were also of the opinion that migration from East Bengal (now Bangladesh) to Assam took place for centuries and it is likely to create social problems if all Bangla-speaking people are generalised as ‘illegal Bangladeshis’.
Nobody has objection to the detection of ‘real illegal migrants’, but it has to be done following due process of law, they said, adding that there are ‘concerns’ among people about the updating of the process of detecting ‘illegal migrants’.
Despite adopting quite a few processes to identify ‘illegal migrants’ for several decades, only about 500 detected as ‘Bangladeshi illegal immigrants’ are now living in different detention camps and about 1.5 lakh people have been identified as doubtful voters while cases in connection with approximately 2 lakhs ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ are pending with a tribunal.
The decision of the government of Narendra Modi to grant citizenship to minority people coming from the neighbouring countries is further complicating the problem, they added.
The experts said that it is unlikely that the problem will be resolved soon.         
Although the issue of ‘illegal Bangladeshi migration or infiltration’ gets abuzz during the election periods, the Indian government does not raise the issue at any official level talks with Bangladesh.
“These are their internal political rhetoric,” a highly-placed government source recently told The Independent requesting anonymity due to ongoing warm bilateral relationship between Dhaka and New Delhi.
“We are not at all responsible for the migration that took place before 1971. There is very little irregular movement of Bangladeshis after that. There is no economic incentive for Bangladeshis to permanently settle in Assam because in every aspect Bangladesh is far ahead of Assam,” said a senior Indian government official.
When asked if the Assamese State government has any data as to how many ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ currently live in Assam, Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal would not provide any figure, even an estimate.
“Now, National Register of Citizens is being updated. Now, the NRC updating process is on. Once it is prepared finally, the detection of the presence of illegal migrants will be visible,” he said during an exclusive interview with The Independent at a government office in Guwahati on August 16, without mentioning any names.
When pressed on the issue, the Chief Minister said, “It’s a question of detection process following the updating of the NRC.”
The final NRC is expected in 2017, but the draft is expected in November this year, he informed.
According to Assam government website, the NRC updating means the process of upgrading the NRC of 1951 by enlisting the names of genuine Indian citizens. It will be done as per the provisions of The Citizenship Act, 1955 and The Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003. Preserving and upgrading NRC was one of key decisions of the tripartite talk between Govt of India, Govt. of Assam and AASU during signing of Assam Accord. The inclusion of names in updated NRC will be based on the data of 1951 NRC and Electoral Rolls up to the midnight of 24th March, 1971 and a list of admissible documents of Pre-1971 period (when name is absent in NRC of 1951 and Electoral Roll of 1971). The Supreme Court of India is directly monitoring the NRC updating process that began in March, 2015 at a cost of Rs 793 crores.
“This is a political problem which needs to be solved politically with exercise of wisdom,” said Nitya Bora, editor of Assam’s largest circulated daily Asomiya Pratidin.
“BJP has created an environment of hatred and I doubt how much effective it will be. Communal issue in Assam has not yet been hateful. But, if there is an attempt to deport a large number of people, it may lead to riots. How long will people remain quiet?” he said, adding that the negative role of some media outlets is not helping the cause. Bora also said that the ‘indigenous Assamese will not even accept citizenship of Bangla-speaking Hindus’.
“There is no difference between Congress and BJP as both of them did politics with the issue without sincerely trying to resolve it,” he added.
“Only a flawless NRC can solve this problem. For instance, it will create a huge problem if the NRC finds 20 lakh illegal immigrants,” said Hafiz Rashid Ahmed Choudhury, a senior lawyer of Guwahati High Court. “Calling every Muslims illegal Bangladeshis has to stop,” he said.
Veteran journalist Haidor Hussain said that large scale migration to Assam from not only East Bengal rather other states of India took place before the partition in 1947.
When contacted, Samujjal Bhattacharya, an adviser of All Assam Students Union in Assam (AASU), said that ‘the border between Bangladesh and Assam has to be sealed, illegal migrants must be detected and deported’.
When asked about the number of ‘illegal Bangladeshi migrants’, he would not specify any figure, rather mentioned ‘lakhs and lakhs’ referring to different leaders.
It may be mentioned that Assam shares 264 km with Bangladesh and 224 km of it has been fenced. The remainder could not be fenced due to riverine geography.
Monowar Hussain, a former Member of Legislative Assembly from All India United Democratic Front (AUDF), said this problem is going to remain in Assam in the near future because many people are questioning the proper updating of the NRC.
The government’s move to create new districts has made nine out of 35 districts Muslim-majority ones, sending shockwaves among the ‘anti-Bangla speakers’ camps, he said.  
“We need a skilled tailor to fix the problem, said Dr IR Bhattacharjee, a researcher.
“Undoubtedly, there are illegal migrants in Assam and freeing Assam from them can be extremely difficult,” said Wasbir Hussain, Executive Director of the Centre for Development & Peace Studies, Guwahati.
Emphasising bilateral engagement between Dhaka and Delhi for India to convince Bangladesh about the existence of the problem, he said that unless Dhaka recognises the problem, the question of sending back ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ back does not arise.
Hassan also said that there is a lack of clarity on the issue itself because all persons who have migrated are generalised as illegal migrants irrespective of the date of their entry into India.
“The condition of both Bangla-speaking Muslims and Hindus are bad,” said Sudip Sharma Chowdhury, a senior reporter of Nishpaksh Samachar Jyoti, a Hindi daily. But, he added, “The condition of Bangla-speaking Hindus is a bit better.”