As politics over immigrants rises in Bengal, NCRB data shows state does have an immigration issue
As the Bhartiya Janta Party and Trinamool Congress spar over the issue of National Register of Citizens in West Bengal, and Amit Shah pledges a pan-India NRC, the latest data published by the National Crime Records Bureau has revealed that the state does have an immigrant problem.
The NCRB data reveals that West Bengal comes first with a whopping share of 49 per cent of all criminal cases in India in which foreigners were booked.
Out of the total 1,098 cases registered against foreigners in 2017 in West Bengal 1,034 were for violation of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Registration of Foreigners Act, 1939 — laws concerning entry, exit, and stay of foreign nationals in the country.
The data also reveals that a vast majority of those booked under these laws are Bangladeshi nationals, totalling at 2,361 — way more than any other nationality.
These numbers may become significant in the state’s political landscape in the days to come as both BJP and TMC have ratcheted political efforts to build narratives around immigration, with the BJP deciding on a mass campaign to bring awareness on illegal immigration and to call for an Assam-like NRC.
The Trinamool Congress has, meanwhile, staunchly opposed the NRC and party chief and the state chief minister Mamata Banerjee has said that NRC is not coming to the state, come what may. She recently got a resolution in the state legislative assembly passed for the same. The Left and the Congress also supported Mamata’s resolution.
As politicians peddle their narratives, the NCRB data makes one thing clear — West Bengal does have an immigration issue, narrative or no narrative.
Madhur Sharma is a journalism student at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication, New Delhi, and a history graduate from the Delhi University. He tweets @madhur_mrt.
The visualisation used in the story belongs to the author and may not be used anywhere.
