Are you among those who have been shocked and appalled by the hospitality being enjoyed in Mumbai’s high security prison by the murderous Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab? His bizarre requests for biryani and perfume apart, the jehadi’s trial and security have already cost the Indian exchequer over Rs 32 crore.

Well, that amount is going to appear like small change compared with the bill that Indians will foot for the 20,000,000 illegal Bangladeshi Muslim immigrants who are about to be granted citizenship by the current government in New Delhi.

If that figure hasn’t sunk in yet, here it is again – 20 million illegal aliens without any loyalties or ties to India. To put that in perspective, the United States, the most sought after destination in the world, lays out the welcome mat for only a million immigrants every year.

The Bangladeshis are hardly model immigrants. They break our water mains and help themselves to free hose downs, in the process polluting the environment and creating water scarcities in our cities. Most Indians in our large metros have at some point in their lives, utilised the services of these illegal immigrants as housemaids, car washers, domestic servants, daily labourers and rickshaw pullers. 

Many Bangladeshis have been arrested for terrorist activities and Dhaka is vying with Karachi to become the hub of anti-Indian activities. Many of these immigrants have gone underground, many will never be discovered, some are sleepers working in Indian cities in non-descript jobs but ready at a moment’s notice to serve their terrorist handlers back in the mangroves.

India’s liberals and Marxists have a readymade defence for the illegal Bangladeshis. According to them, these people have been living in India for years, and so are entitled to citizenship, subsidised food and fuel and if possible government housing.

However, allowing Bangladeshis to settle in India is negating the very idea of India’s partition along religious lines in 1947. If Bangladeshis chose to split from India, there's no excuse for them to come to India now. At the time of partition, 25% of the population of the area that comprises Bangladesh was Hindu. Today it is down to 8%. This is sustained ethnic cleansing but India’s liberals and Marxists have turned a blind eye to it. Therefore, granting citizenship to Bangladeshis mean rewarding the perpetrators of the crimes of Partition.

Since the late 1970’s Indian intelligence agencies have regularly arrested Bangladeshi clerics trying to sneak into India with literature describing India as living space for the impoverished and over-populated country’s people. This has been well documented in the Indian press. The Bangladeshi intelligentsia says India offers room for Bangladeshi expansionism. This is uncannily similar to the Nazi concept of Lebensraum – living space for the 'superior' German race in the vast lands of the Slavic race, the 'untermenschen' or 'inferior' Russians, Serbians, Bulgarians, Slovaks, Czechs and Poles. 

What is particularly sinister is the manner in which the Indian government is misusing the Census machinery to ram millions of illegal foreigners down our throats.

India’s citizenship rules direct that during the verification process “particulars of such individuals whose citizenship is doubtful shall be entered with appropriate remarks in the population register”. During the ongoing Census 2011, enumerators are to fill one form for each person who is enumerated. Item No.11 in this form says: “Please record the nationality of the respondent as declared by him/her for each of the person enumerated. Do not get into any argument with the respondent regarding this.”

“This is the Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD) smuggled into the census structure to facilitate tens of millions of illegal immigrants to be converted into a vote bank through citizenship,” says R. Vaidyanathan, analyst and professor, Indian Institute of Management-Bangalore. When the citizenship rules ask for doubtful cases of citizenship to be identified and recorded, the census manual to collect information under the very citizenship rules says “do not doubt the respondent; just record what he says”.

Vaidyanathan says anyone who has entered India six months prior to the census or anyone who intends to stay in the country for six months after it becomes “usual resident” under the census rules, and they can declare themselves Indian citizens. “Not only that, the government is planning to issue National Identity Cards to these people though the cards are meant only for Indian citizens,” he says.

The granting of citizenship to millions of illegal immigrants has grave portents for Indian nationhood. Encouraged by the news of their kin being welcomed, even larger numbers of Bangladeshis will now pour into India. The demography of the eastern states has already been distorted by the influx of Bangladeshi Muslims. Indeed, the Centre has refused to release the Census 2001 figures for Assam because over the past 60 years the north eastern state has seen its ethnic Assamese population reduced to minority status, a fact that all Assamese know but which the government keeps denying.

What India should do is grant work visas to these Bangladeshis and make them go back to their country after a certain number of years. Also, for allowing them to work in our cities, India should demand reciprocity from Bangladesh and make that country safe for the remaining Hindus there who live in constant fear of jehadi forces. 

While Indians are the most productive and prosperous immigrants in every country, India on the other hand is opening its borders to immigrants who have no love for the land, and in fact are the descendants of those who fought, rioted and murdered thousands to deny the concept of India. We are clearly an overpopulated country, we don’t need more tired, toiling masses.

Like Partition in 1947 and the release without trial of 93,000 Pakistani POWs, who murdered 3 million Bangladeshis in 1971, this citizenship spree is yet another historic mistake by India’s vote hungry politicians who are perpetually living in denial.

—Rakesh Krishnan Simha is a features writer at Fairfax New Zealand. He has previously worked with Businessworld, India Today and Hindustan Times, and was news editor with the Financial Express.

July 2010