Bangladesh unrest triggers fear of Myanmar-like influx into Northeast; Amit Shah says not to worry

Guwahati: The resignation of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the unrest there has triggered fear of Myanmar-like influx into India's Northeast, particularly Tripura and Assam, which had witnessed massive influx during Bangladesh's liberation war in 1971.

As the news about Hasina's resignation spread, Pradyot Deb Barma, the chief of Tipra Motha party in Tripura, expressed concern about protecting the borders saying Tripura, West Bengal, Meghalaya and Assam could face the repercussion as a "strong anti-India sentiment" was growing in the neighbouring country.

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Hours later, Deb Barma said he spoke to Union Home Minister Amit Shah. "Amit Shah assured that the borders of India are well protected and no illegal influx will be allowed. He is monitoring the situation and asked our forces to remain vigil at the borders," Deb Barma posted on X.

Tipra Motha is an ally of the BJP government in Tripura. Deb Barma says that indigenous people in Tripura have become minorities due to migration of Bengalis from Bangladesh.

BSF officials said personnel guarding the 4,096 km borders with Bangladesh in Bengal, Tripura, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Assam have been put on high alert to check possible influx due to the unrest. "There is a possibility of an influx of Hasina's party workers," a security official in Tripura told DH.

Myanmar-like influx

Mizoram, Manipur and Nagaland had witnessed influx of "refugees" and "pro-democracy protesters" after Aung San Suu Kyi-led elected government was taken over in a coup by the military in early 2021.

More than 35,000 "refugees" and "pro-democracy protesters" including MPs and ministers are still taking shelter in Mizoram as the conflict in Myanmar continues.

The influx, in fact, was cited as one of the reasons leading to the conflict between the Meiteis and the Kukis in Manipur. Meiteis says that they are faced with an identity crisis as the Kukis provided shelters to a large number of Chin-Kuki migrants from Myanmar. Kukis share the ethnic ties with the Chin-Kukis.

The old fear in Assam

Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP), a regional party, which was born out of the anti-CAA agitation in 2020, on Monday expressed fear about increase in immigration into Assam due to the unrest as some stretches of the border with Bangladesh has still remained unfenced despite long demand.

"Immediate steps must be taken to prevent influx as Assam cannot take further burden of illegal migrants. The BJP-led government has failed to fence the borders, identify and expel the foreigners as agreed in the Assam Accord of 1985. The National Register of Citizens (NRC), which sought to detect all post-1971 immigrants, has still not been implemented. The fear of infiltration has increased after the Narendra Modi government implemented the CAA that seeks to welcome the non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan, till 2014," AJP general secretary, Lurinjyoti Gogoi said in a statement.

Gogoi was the general secretary of All Assam Students' Union, which led the anti-foreigners movement between 1979 and 1985. The Assam Accord, which was signed after the movement, had promised to detect and deport all post-1971 "illegal migrants". The foreigners problem, however, has remained the biggest political issue in Assam since then.

The indigenous people are angry and worried about becoming a minority in their own state as a large number of people could get Indian citizenship through the CAA, Gogoi said.