Kerala's anti nationals and how the migrants add to the problem

Thiruvananthapuram, Aug 3: The arrest of Abdul Wahid (24) a migrant labour from Bengal in Kerala for allegedly disrespecting the Indian National Flag is another grim reminder of the anti national activities that are fast spreading in the state.

A native of Bokhara, Murshidabad in West Bengal, Wahid was accused of posting a photograph of a dog wrapped in the Tricolour and being chased by a tiger holding a Bangladesh flag.

He was also accused of circulating a photograph in which a dog is urinating on a Hindu Goddess. This is just one such case in a state which has been vulnerable to terror and anti national activities thanks to both the Gulf link and also the big problem of migrants from Bengal and Bangladesh.

A state vulnerable to anti nationals and terror

Kerala has been facing an immense problem of both anti nationals and terror sympathisers for long. The close link to the Gulf has been a major problem in Kerala.

Funds and radical preachers have made their way quite easily into the state for sometime now. The recent case in which 21 people going missing and reportedly joining the ISIS is one such incident. In the recent past as well there have been ample instances of terror camps being held in Wagamon.

The state has also played host to several Indian Mujahideen operatives who have taken shelter in the aftermath of carrying out an attack.

The latest in the offing seems to be the migrants from Bengal and Bangladesh. The investigations into the Jisha murder case revealed that it was the handiwork of a migrant. The nationality of the accused is yet to be ascertained by the police.

However, no lesson has been learnt and the police continue to go soft on the migrant workers. The police have been slow to react to the problem of Bangladeshi migrants in particular.

If a Bangladeshi is arrested then the arrest would need to be recorded under the Foreigner's Act and it needs to be shown that these persons had entered the country without valid documents.

There are too many legal complications that follow and this has kept the police away from undertaking such arrests.

While not all migrants are creating a problem, there is a faction which systematically triggers crime and carries out anti national activities. Weeding out these persons has been extremely slow. There are a host of reasons explaining this problem.

Thronging Kerala

A statistic of 2013 showed that there were around 2.5 million migrant workers in Kerala. Most persons were eager to take in the migrants for work as the labour costs in Kerala is too high.

The migrants too prefer Kerala to earn their livelihood and annually they remit around Rs 18,000 crore back to their home states in Bengal, Assam, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh. Each one of them is paid Rs 300 as daily wages. This again is cheaper compared to what the locals charge in Kerala.

The migrant workers take up jobs in the planation sector, petrol bunks, construction sites and also hotels.

The police say that there is a directive to all those employing such persons to issue them identification cards. It is mandatory that before employing such persons a report needs to be filed with the police station.

However, most do not do it and this has caused an immense problem as a result of which a tab cannot be kept on all of them.

The other problem is that it is hard to tell whether the person is from Bengal or Bangladesh. At the border in West Bengal and Assam there is a major racket in which illegal migrants are provided with identification cards.

In exchange they have to compulsorily return to Bengal and Assam to vote for a party which has facilitated their identification papers.

OneIndia News