The illegal Bangladeshi migrants issue has come to occupy centre-stage in Assam once again. Various student organizations and political parties are upping the ante on the government's failure, both state and central. The Illegal Migrants Determination by Tribunal (IMDT) Act was passed and the Assam Accord was signed over two and a half decades ago. Yet, at the end of the six-year-long anti-foreigner agitation, spearheaded by the All Assam Students Union (AASU), on the understanding that all illegal migrants from Bangladesh after 1971 would be identified and deported from Assam, no action has transpired.

The recent protests come in the backdrop of the Guwahati High Court judgement, ordering the deportation of 50 illegal Bangladeshi migrants, and its strong comments on the state administration's role in facilitating their constant influx and continued stay in Assam . The Guwahati High Court noted that the police establishment in the state and the Regional Passport Office in Guwahati were responsible for the anomalies in the system which enabled these illegal migrants to register themselves as voters in the state and even get a passport issued in their names by furnishing false documents. It also noted that the sovereignty of the nation was threatened under such circumstances, and directed the administration to ensure that the names of the 50 illegal Bangladeshi migrants are struck off the electoral rolls of the state.

Justice B K Sharma pointed out the serious anomalies in the system which were used by a Pakistani national, Mohammad Kamaruddin, who had sneaked into Assam via Dhaka , to contest state assembly elections from Jamunamukh constituency way back in 1996. The court order implicated the state administration for their corruption and lackadaisical attitude in correcting such anomalies, and the collusion of various political parties who help these illegal migrants to stay on in Assam , and use them as vote-banks. The court further noted that these were sinister designs from across India's borders to undermine the unity, integrity and sovereignty of the country, and more particularly, to wrest political control from the indigenous people of Assam . In a hard-hitting order, it underlined that "If the phenomenon of cancerous growth of Bangladeshis continues, the day is not far off, when the indigenous people of Assam, both Hindus and Muslims and other religious groups, will be reduced to minorities in its own land and the Bangladeshis, who are freely and merrily moving around the fertile land of Assam, will intrude upon the corridors of power."

Student organizations such as the AASU and the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP) have launched an anti-foreigner campaign, which has mobilized large bands of youth in various parts of Assam to identify and apprehend suspected Bangladeshi migrants and report them to the local police stations. The number of cases in the Foreigners Tribunal in Assam has seen a sharp increase. They have called for an economic boycott of the Bangladeshi population who work as domestic workers and rickshaw pullers and appealed to the Assamese population not to support them in any way in various districts of Upper Assam . AASU has even called for an Inner Line permit system for Assam . An umbrella body, consisting of 22 student organizations in Upper Assam , has given a 72-hour deadline for illegal Bangladeshi migrants to leave the region or face dire consequences. This could lead to clashes between migrant groups and local student bodies, which could deteriorate the law and order situation in the state.

The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), especially the Upper Assam faction, which includes the ceasefire faction of the 28^th battalion, could use this situation to bolster their base in the region, given the inaction of the local political parties The Central Government should step in at an opportune time to contain the situation, which would ensure that the separatists do not gain a foothold using this issue. The Central Government cannot afford to sit on the situation for long, as already 7 of Assam's 23 districts are dominated by a large illegal Bangladeshi population, thereby changing the demography of an entire region in Lower Assam , from where there have been demands for a separate 'Islamistan', accompanied by a high degree of radicalization in the society.

There have been reports of jehadi groups being influential among the migrant Bangladeshi population in Assam, which poses an even more serious threat to the internal security of India . The Bharatiya Janata Party has launched a massive campaign in Assam on this issue, and has the potential to communalize the state along Hindu-Muslim lines. The indigenous Assamese Muslim community, which has been converted into a minority by the large Bangladeshi influx, could get caught in the crossfire, in the ensuing communal propaganda. With state-level political parties engaged in a blame-game over this contentious issue, peace has to be maintained at all costs, with corrective measures taken by the Central Government to avoid another crisis at its frontiers.