Friday, August 5 2005 15:57 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

India should sit up and take notice. Not just because the Rohingyas pose a future insurgent threat, but because of the startling parallels between the situation of the Rohingyas in Bangladesh and the situation of the Bangladeshis in India. Last week, resentment against Bangladeshi immigrants boiled over in a campaign of leaflets and SMS by anonymous groups in Assam.

The unidentified groups in the troubled state's Dibrugarh district have circulated leaflets and sent text messages on mobile phones in the past week, warning Bangladeshi nationals to leave immediately or face unspecified action. Mobile phones in Assam are being flooded with text messages saying, "Save the nation, save identity. Let's take an oath - no food, no job, no shelter to Bangladeshis" while leaflets seeking an 'economic blockade' of the migrants are also being distributed.

This is not the first such campaign against Bangladeshi migrants. In the early 1980s, the powerful All Assam Students Union launched a bloody campaign to push Bangladeshis back to their homeland. Thousands of Bangladeshis, including women and children, were massacred across the state by Assamese mobs, who feared they would be reduced to a minority in their own land. The Government and the Students Union signed a pact in 1985 but clauses on the deportation of foreigners have still not been implemented. For, in Assam, concerns about Bangladeshis are easily conflated with communal violence against local Muslims as well, many of whom also get labelled as 'Bangladeshi.'

Since the latest campaign against Bangladeshis began, rickshaw pullers in Assam have gone off the road, maids have stopped coming to work and there is a shortage of eggs and chickens as most vendors were Bangladeshi. Brick kilns have been closed due to shortage of labour.

This only proves that most Bangladeshis are here to work and to make money. They are not the 'security concerns' that they are made out to be in Government and public discourse. But if the persecution and the attacks, psychological and physical, continue, then like the Rohingyas in Bangladesh, the Bangladeshis in India will be ticking time bombs to an explosive future.

India perhaps needs to learn from its own tolerant and inclusive past. After all, what have we lost by giving refuge to the Tibetan community? We gained international recognition for humanitarianism and have gained a unique community which certainly adds to India's tourism appeal.

There's a lesson in that. Tourists come to places where conditions are hospitable and welcoming. So do refugees. Governments cannot be selective about welcoming tourists while keeping refugees out. Unless Governments create conditions and rules that allow for easier migration, the unrest is likely to keep tourists away as well.

We cannot be selective about 'Atithi devo Bhava'. After all, despite its beautiful beaches and mangrove swams, who goes to Bangladesh but aid workers? And more poignantly for us, who goes to India's North East, despite all the beauty of the place?