Shooting oneself on the leg : Of visa-free proposal and Hindi
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: June 25 , 2014 -

Certain section of the media may see the upcoming first Budget of the Modi Government scheduled to be delivered on July 10 as the first litmus test, but on hindsight, it may not be altogether wrong to say that the litmus test for the new Government at Delhi has already started on two counts.

Ironically it is not the Opposition which has put the NDA Government to test, but the Government itself.

In the first place the proposal of the Government to allow certain groups of people from Bangladesh to enter India without visas is not only ill advised but also ill timed.

It was not so long ago that certain parts of Assam witnessed vast bloodshed between the indigenous people and others who were deemed to be illegal migrants from Bangladesh.

A visa free entry provision would not only stoke tension but it has all the possibility of opening the doors to illegal migrants to the States adjoining Bangladesh and others nearby.

It is not only Assam but also the other North East States. It was not for nothing that the Home Minister of Nagaland, Y Patton went on record and stated that the influx of illegal migrants has become a serious security problem in the State.

This happening in a State where the Inner Line Permit System is enforced and one can imagine the anxiety and apprehension that other North East States where the LIPS is not in force will face if the visa-free proposal is actually implemented in letter and spirit.

At the moment a strong pressure has been mounted on the Government to enforce the Inner Line Permit System in Manipur to check the influx of illegal migrants to Manipur with even the State Assembly adopting a resolution to forward the same to the Centre.

It is amid this scenario that the Modi Government has come up with the idea of visa free entry to certain section of people from Bangladesh.

Extending the hand of friendship to a neighbouring country cannot be reduced to allowing its citizens to enter the country without visas. This is also against global norms.

The visa-free proposal also goes against the spirit of what Narendra Modi said during his election campaign at West Bengal wherein he was quoted as saying that if the NDA comes to power all migrants from Bangladesh would be sent back, which evoked a sharp reaction from West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee.

If this proposal is part of the 100 day action programme plan of the Prime Minister, then it may just amount to shooting oneself on the leg.

Language. This is a sensitive issue but the Modi Government seems to have overlooked this crucial point when it issued a directive that Hindi should be given the priority in all official works and on the social media.

Promoting a language is fine but imposing a directive is far removed from promoting something, and this is where the NDA Government has rubbed many the wrong way, evoking sharp criticisms from non-Hindi speaking States.

Already the grand old man of Tamil Nadu politics Karunanidhi has made his displeasure clear.

If the Modi Government goes ahead and makes this directive mandatory, there will be more backlash, including from the North East region.

The directive itself is self evident of a certain degree of linguistic chauvinism which will certainly not go down well with numerous section of people.

Moreover, with this directive, Modi is unwittingly giving space to regional satraps to rise and gain prominence.

It was the language issue that propelled Anna to the political centre stage in Tamil Nadu.

Modi certainly cannot afford to overlook this all important point. Hindi is no doubt the lingua franca of the country, but as a reader of The Sangai Express pointed out in a letter to the Editor, it is spoken by just 40 percent of the total population of the country.

The Modi Government needs to seriously study and try to differentiate between popularising a language and imposing a language.

And it goes without saying that imposition has more often than not kicked back.

The statesman in Modi is sharply lacking in the visa free proposal as well as in the directive to prioritise Hindi in all official works as well as on the social media.

This goes against the grain of the Modi wave that gripped the country some time back.