The governments, both in the states as well as at the Centre, cite inadequate forces as a constraint in tackling the inflow. But this problem cannot be handled by the police or by the normal law and order machinery. It needs much more, namely a vision for the region, and a practical step-by-step approach to make it a reality. Even steps being taken to identify immigrants run into problems, given the local political interests need of vote banks. The Congress Party has been most vociferous on this for its believes it stands to lose the most. It claims that the repeal of the IMDT would harm minorities.

Is the Congress the thekedar of ‘minority’ interests, in Assam or anywhere else? It has the advantage of being a party that has bent over backwards in the past thirty years to accommodate Muslim interests. This happened because the Muslims had little other choice. These days, that is changing both in Assam and in West Bengal. It is not just the ‘secularists’ who have ‘minority’ support; it is the regionalists and local groups, as well as the BJP to a lesser degree, that are wooing and winning this constituency. No single party or political alliance has the divine right to speak on behalf of any community, much less that of a state and a country.

Minority groups need to ask themselves and their leaders if their interests are best served by allying just with one political group. Even the United Minorities Front, which was set up in the 1980s and includes both Hindus (Bengali-speakers and others) and Muslims, now seeks accomodation on the issues that have grown around the IMDT. This is a good sign and can reduce the animosity that has existed for decades. Those animosities once erupted at the time of the Nellie massacres. They can still be ignited, for many hates still linger, in hiding for the moment perhaps, but waiting for a time to strike.

Knotty problems such as that of migration and of land pressures, which are aligned to many other factors—economic, environmental, social and political—need breathing space if they are to be tackled with any hope of success. Dialogue on all fronts, with all groups, including Bangladesh and its leaders then, holds the key. Without understanding the deeper issues and disseminating that understanding widely, efforts to address these key questions will remain at best short-term and thus doomed to failure.

A good gesture from Bangladesh has been the repeal of the Vesting of Properties and Assets Order (1972), which has been long resented by Hindus.

It is worth closing here with a visual that can bring to life dry statistics, especially the intelligence estimate which places the number of Bangladeshis in the Delhi/New Delhi area at not less than 300,000.