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Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh
AKHIL BHARTIYA PRATINIDHI SABHA
7- 9 March 2003, NAGPUR Dt. 8.3.03
Appeal to repeal
the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) Act, 1983
The ABPS expresses its grave concern over the continued influx of
illegal migrants into our country. Recent disclosures in the Lok
Sabha by the Government confirm that these foreign nationals have
not only crossed over to our border areas they have also
penetrated deep into other parts of the country in large numbers.
In '80s Assam witnessed a prolonged massive agitation against the
infiltration of foreign nationals. As part of that movement
elections were boycotted in 1980 and 1983 too which resulted in
only two Members getting elected to the Parliament with great
difficulty from that State. Congress Government under the
leadership of Smt. Indira Gandhi exploited this situation and
promulgated "Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal)
Act,1983" (IMDT Act) in Assam state only.
According to this Act, if a complaint is made about the
citizenship of any person crossing over into our country, the onus
of establishing before the District Tribunal that the said person
is not a citizen of our country will be on the complainant
himself. At the time of promulgation of this Act in 1983 a
complainant had to pay Rs. 25 for each complaint. Further, the
complainant should be living within 5 KMs area of the person
against whom the complaint was made. In 1988, during the AGP
regime, these conditions were slightly relaxed. Complaint fee was
reduced from Rs. 25 to Rs. 10 and it was also amended that it is
enough if the accused and the complainant both live in the same
police station limits.
As a result, this new Act, which was promulgated with an objective
of pushing back the illegal Muslim infiltrators is, on the
contrary, being used to shield those infiltrators. It is resulting
in a phenomenal rise in the number of infiltrators. There is a
steep rise in robberies, dacoities, drug peddling, smuggling in
arms, crime and illegal trade in the entire Bangladesh border
belt, posing a big threat to our economy and security. Because of
this the women and children are worst affected and it causes
serious social tension also.
The infiltration of Bangladeshis into Assam has continued unabated
for many years due to the fact that in the villages spread over
miles together on both sides of the border, only people belonging
to Muslim community live. Hence it is next to impossible to get a
single complaint against any infiltrator lodged, that too from the
same police station area. As a result, only 15% complaints could
be processed by the Tribunal so far. In 90% of those complaints
the accused were let free because the complainants from the same
police station could not produce sufficient proof against them. As
per this Act the onus of proving his or her citizenship rests on
the suspected person himself. Also, under the article (3) of this
Act Hindu-Buddhist refugees enjoy the rights like other Bharatiya
citizens, to live in any of the North Eastern States, which were a
part of Assam in 1950 when the Act was promulgated.
This IMDT Act of 1983 makes the earlier "Expulsion of Foreigners
Act, 1950", enacted for the same purpose totally infructuous too.
This Act of 1950 was promulgated to identify and deport foreign
nationals from our country. It contained provisions for
citizenship to Hindu-Buddhist refugees. It must be borne in mind
that before the 1983 Act was promulgated over 3 lakh foreign
infiltrators were deported from Assam under the 1950 Act.
The 1983 Act has also led to ambiguity over the citizenship issue
of Hindu-Buddhist refugees from Bangladesh once again. Bangladesh
being an Islamic Republic, many Hindu-Buddhists are being pushed
into India forcibly even now. But due to lack of proper documents,
their citizenship is also being treated as disputed. This
situation arose as a result of the removal of their protection
extended under the 1950 Act after the new Act was promulgated.
In view of this grave situation the ABPS calls upon the Government
of India to repeal the IMDT Act 1983 and take steps to apply the
Act of 1950, in Assam also which is already in force in the other
States of our country. The ABPS also demands that the said Act be
used diligently to identify and deport foreign nationals illegally
overstaying in our country. All that is needed for this is that
the Union Government has to make necessary provisions in
Citizenship and Foreigners Acts that no Hindu-Buddhist refugee be
declared as foreigner.
The ABPS urges all the political parties to appreciate the
seriousness of this national problem, rise above their political
affiliations and extend their cooperation to have suitable
provision in the Acts.
The ABPS calls upon all the countrymen, especially the
Swayamsevaks, to be on the alert and active so that Hindus won't
become a minority in the North East and the anti-national
conspiracies to convert Assam into another Kashmir are thwarted. |
