Citizenship at midnight

A seminal event took place in a few forgotten parts of India and Bangladesh at the stroke of midnight. India and Bangladesh transferred 162 enclaves, ending the sub-human existence of over 50,000 stateless people. By a quirk of history, there were ``111 Indian territories'' in Bangladesh and 51 ``Bangladesh territories'' in India. This was an absurd arrangement at best. The Indian authorities had to complete extensive formalities before they could enter their enclaves in Bangladesh. This meant they would be and were denied access during spells of a downturn in bilateral ties. The process took from a week to a fortnight when ties were warm, as is the case during Sheikh Hasina's present tenure as Prime Minister. 

The enclave formations produced extremely unacceptable outcomes: the 50,000 denizens of these enclaves had never voted, were dependent on quacks, had no electricity and criminals had a free run of the place. All this is now history. New national flags will flutter in these enclaves and the residents will get citizenship cards 31 years after Indira Gandhi and Sheikh Mujibur Rehman signed an accord and four years after Manmohan Singh reached a land boundary agreement with Sheikh Hasina. The BJP had blocked Manmohan Singh's bid to ratify the agreement in Parliament. It quickly realised the geo-political advantages of such a pact after Narendra Modi became Prime Minister despite the party's Assam unit going into a sulk. 

The transfer of enclaves, one of the three main features of the agreement - the others are demarcating the 6.5-km border and transferring "adverse possessions" or enclaves along the border - will help quickly operationalise many other initiatives. Indian cargo vessels will be able to use the Chittagong and Mongla ports in Bangladesh instead of going to Singapore. Indian goods will transit through Bangladesh instead of being transported to the North-East through the roundabout Chicken's Neck corridor. But both governments have their tasks cut out: to resolve the problem of undocumented migration, smuggling and human trafficking. Modi also has to sign the Teesta river water sharing pact, another hugely emotional issue in Bangladesh.