Recently, a viral claim of around 20 lakh illegal Bangladeshi immigrants residing all across the southern state of Karnataka led to yet another public discourse on quite an infamous topic- illegal infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims into the country and the security, demographic, and economic threats that they pose.
Recently, strong public protests took place in north Karnataka’s Hubballi, wherein people demanded statewide police raids at these infiltrators’ settlements, train-route screening, and immediate action to be taken by the Karnataka Congress government.
It has been alleged that these Bangladeshi infiltrators have been entering Karnataka via Shalimar Express, from West Bengal to Karnataka, and have settled in the state using fake Aadhar cards and voter ID cards to evade identity detection. The hotspots of such settlements are Bengaluru, Hubballi, Malnad, and other plantation regions, wherein they have found a safe haven, working at construction sites, as vendors, and as daily wage labourers.
In order to delve deeper into the facts related to the matter at hand and gauge the ground reality, Sonakshi Datta of GoaChronicle had a detailed conversation with Sharan Setty, a journalist, author, and documentary filmmaker from Bengaluru, who is also the founder of ‘Bodh by Sharan Setty’, bringing out political and social analyses of various issues, and investigative deep-dives.
Speaking on the issue, Sharan said, ‘When any form of infiltration happens, it happens at the borders, and hence, security at the same should be stringent, because even though it may disproportionately affect some states more than others, all of them are negatively impacted.’
There could be various aspects leading to the illegal infiltration of these Bangladeshi immigrants into our country, like natural calamities, overpopulation, and most importantly, a lookout for jobs as there is a lack of economic opportunities in their home country. At the same time, this phenomenon poses a great threat to the sovereignty and national security of India.
How such infiltration threatens national security can be fathomed through the kind of modules emerging out of places like Bengaluru. The state intelligence and the state police have found sleeper cells associated with Jamaat-e-Islami and other such terrorist organisations working in the state’s capital. Another recent example of how national security is and can be impacted was the blast that took place at the Rameshwaram Café in Bengaluru.
It is also noteworthy that such a settlement of illegal immigrants can thrive easily because of political and social patronage, in the absence of which, such a phenomenon is difficult to take place. It is a fact that there is no concrete resistance to this problem in Karnataka, and even if there is resistance, it is opposed. For instance, the demolition drive launched by the DK Sivakumar-led Congress government in North Bengaluru’s Kogilu Cross was resisted against by some in the locality.
Instances of social patronage can be seen in regions like Coorg, wherein the coffee estate and other landowners are looking for cheap labour, which they get through employing these illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, rather than paying more to labourers who come from within Karnataka or from neighbouring states like Kerala and Tamil Nadu.
The rates at which the illegal immigrants work are almost one-tenth of what local workers are paid, hence making it economically more feasible for the landowners to employ the former. It is a hapless fact that while looking for economic benefits, nobody considers nationalism as a factor to reckon with.
Similar social patronage can also be seen in the case of these illegal Bangladeshis being employed as domestic help, which is cheaper as compared to employing other local individuals, despite their identities being verified by the police, and them being Indians.
‘Even in detention centres, these illegal immigrants are given quite a lot of privileges’, stated Sharan. He added, ‘During the Bommai administration, an erstwhile police chief had flagged concerns about the whole process of implementing NRC, detecting and deporting people since the processes were not in place, and no one was willing to take the responsibility for this.’
At a detention centre in Nelamangala, situated outside of Bengaluru, revealed a source speaking with GoaChronicle, the detained illegal immigrants allegedly started demanding that they be fed beef; and the detention centres are run by the social welfare department, which is not adept to handling such situations.
To nip the problem in the bud, security has to be tightened at the border and proper fencing has to happen, and then, welcome steps like the SIR taking place in Bengaluru have to be taken all across, through which these fake voter IDs could be detected and deleted. Along with this, not only appeasement from political parties, but economic patronage given by the locals has to be stopped.
It is important to note at this point that while such a threatening problem is rearing its head rampantly in the state, it is being completely ignored by the current Karnataka government, and until and unless the required action is not taken with an iron-fist, the threat would continue to expand and show its ugly effects.
