Illegal immigration is undeniably a threat to India. But that should not give the State the licence to evict people on the basis of contested evidence. The fate of Sunali Khatun, a resident of Bengal's Birbhum district, shows that such a possibility cannot be ruled out in a country whose ruling regime appears keen to weaponise the rhetoric of ghuspaithiyas for political and ideological purposes. Ms Khatun and five others, including her minor son, had been detained in Delhi in June and deported to Bangladesh within a matter of days. The Centre alleges that they did not possess the documents necessary to prove citizenship or legitimate residency and that due process was followed in the course of their deportation. But things took a revealing turn in the court of law. The Calcutta High Court not only quashed the deportation but also directed the Union home ministry to bring back Ms Khatun and others within a stipulated time frame. A court in Bangladesh, too, had asked the Indian high commission to facilitate their return to India. But the Centre refused to do so, leading the Calcutta High Court to give its nod to initiate contempt proceedings against the former. The Centre then took the matter to the Supreme Court where it was subjected to searching questions recently. In fact, the highest court observed that since several documents attesting to the citizenship of the accused has been made available, the Centre could, as an interim measure, bring the deportees back and offer them an opportunity to prove their claims. Incidentally, the names of Ms Khatun’s parents, it has been reported, figure on Bengal’s 2002 electoral roll: a key benchmark for the ongoing Special Intensive Revision of the state's electoral list. The outcome in this case must be decided on the basis of clear evidence: polarising rhetoric has no role to play in this.
What makes the developments in this particular case important is that migrants, mostly Muslims from Bengal, had been at the receiving end of an administrative drive to push back alleged infiltrators from not only Delhi but also Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha and Madhya Pradesh — each state has the Bharatiya Janata Party at its helm. While administrative interventions to weed out illegal immigrants are necessary, care should be taken to ensure that bona fide residents are not inconvenienced in the process. This is not just a question of national security. It also involves safeguarding the fundamental rights of citizens.