Immigration, Legal and Illegal, takes place when people of a certain population do not have enough resources and opportunities for growth in their native land; or when wars, disasters, calamities and persecution force them to leave their native shores. The difference between a Legal and Illegal Immigrant is that while the former seeks a better standard of life than the one he leaves behind; the latter is concerned only with survival. Thus, a Legal Migrant seeks to make a better living than the one he had, but an Illegal Migrant seeks to make any sort of living, provided he survives.
That is the crux of the matter, and the difference between the Indian Migrant and the Illegal Bangladeshi Migrant in Nagaland. An Indian Migrant will leave Nagaland the moment he realises that opportunities to make a better life for himself in Nagaland have diminished. But an IBI will remain so long as he has enough to eat.
I can recall exactly how the IBIs increased in such numbers. They came first, as share croppers in our paddy fields. Their willingness to provide their own cattle to plough our fields, while still giving us half the crop, lessened the burden on us to buy oxen. This lessening of expenditure without diminishment of our profit led to the IBIs being favoured over the Adivasis and Biharis, until nearly all the paddy fields in and around Dimapur were farmed by the IBIs. The next step was the rickshaws, the autorickshaws, the pan shops, the readymade and second-hand clothes shops, the Cellular Phone retail and servicing shops, the chicken, egg, beef and fish markets and so on. They are becoming upwardly mobile, socially and economically. All this they have achieved because they were “Willing to pay us a little bit more for our services, while being willing to take a little bit less for their services.” And now that they have controlled all these markets, they control the prices in cahoots with our “Freedom Fighters”.
I have only Adivasis and Nepalis as sharecroppers; I have expelled all “Miyas” from my building a long time back, and have taken financial losses because of that. I have refused good offers from IBIs on vacant rooms on my premises and instead favoured young Naga Entrepreneurs, despite being disappointed by them time and again. I have kept only one “Miya” tailor and his family all these years, because I have witnessed how he struggled to make a living for himself and his family. But I had already given him notice of eviction at the beginning of the year, but in consideration for his children’s education, I had deferred his eviction till the end of the year.
So this sudden outburst against IBIs in Nagaland amuses me. The Government of Nagaland cannot do anything; When the Government of The United States of America cannot curb illegal immigration of Spanish speaking people from across the Mexican Border; what can the stupid Government of Nagaland do? Suggest all your measures and implement them, it will not work; for we Nagas are a greedy, spineless and immoral people. Walk the talk, tell your family members, your villagers, your clansmen and tribesmen to stop employing, using and renting premises to IBIs. The problem will be solved in a second.
Nagaland faces greater dangers than being “swamped and taken over” by IBIs in thirty or forty years’ time. When some of our Legislators talk about Nagas wanting “Peace at any Price”, even if the price be peace under an Authoritarian Yariawo of the N.S.C.N. (I-M); when the same moronic Legislators we elect talk of “Solution, not Elections”, which is the greatest and most immediate danger to Nagaland?
A few years back, a fellow chief of mine, Ato Kukau Saul Zhimomi of Puhoto Village, and I went to meet a newly transferred I.G.P. of the C.R.P.F. at their Homeland camp. While waiting for the I.G.P. to arrive, we were having a casual conversation with the Sector Commander, a Bihari gentleman. He said something which has stayed in my mind ever since; what he said was, “If you chase out the Biharis, Marwaris etc. from Nagaland, they will go back to their native lands without a murmur, but if you try to chase the Miyas out of Nagaland, unless you are careful, there will come a day when they will fight back, because they have nowhere else to go.” That day is still to arrive; the IBI problem is like an abyss on our path which we are in danger of falling into; but it still lies ahead of us. We can avoid that abyss, right now, by simply evicting them from our houses and properties and by refusing to employ them in any manner. But will your greed allow you to do so? I have done my part, it is for you to do yours. I now concentrate on the Naga Serpents and Parasites that litter my path.
God save our Nagaland
