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Aadhaar, India’s biometrics-based nationalidentity system, has definitely been a gamechanger in the delivery of our public policy benefits. Designed to provide legal identity to those who

possessed no papers and to eliminate the multiple documents required for availing even minor government benefits, it has largely been an unqualified success. Fifteen years after the first

12-digit “unique ID” was issued under Aadhaar, nearly every Indian has enrolled, replacing bundles of photocopies with only a photograph or a fingerprint. It has eliminated corruption and

fraud in the provision of benefits. Opening a bank account or switching mobile operators now takes minutes instead of days earlier. But the darker side ~ the blatant misuse of Aadhaar ~ have

started emerging recently, and the reports are really alarming. During a 2024 ED raid of 17 locations in Jharkhand and West Bengal targeting Bangladeshi infiltration, authorities discovered

fake Aadhaar cards and machines for printing these. Advertisement It is common knowledge that an ecosystem has always existed in West Bengal operated by private agents with the connivance

of governments ever since the days of the Left Front to attract illegal immigrants from Bangladesh who formed a loyal vote bank for the ruling dispensation. While the state looks the other

way, local agents create and provide fake Aadhaar cards which are then used to obtain ration cards and even passports to establish the Indian citizenship of infiltrators, many of them

Rohingya refugees from Myanmar entering India from Bangladesh. It clearly points to the nexus between illegal infiltration, forged identity documents, and money laundering activities.

Advertisement Last September, after appre hending several Bangladeshis at the border, the BSF alerted UIDAI to deactivate the Aadhaar registrations of all suspected Bangladeshi nationals

apprehended while entering or leaving the country. Now even bona-fide Indians from West Bengal and Assam face a problem in changing their Aadhaar cards outside their states. Besides West

Bengal, Jharkhand’s Sahibganj has emerged as an infiltration hub. Investigators have identified aliens involved in land grabs within Jharkhand and also in trafficking girls. ED probes show

that the infiltration issue has now evolved into a thriving nexus of criminal activities, potentially involving local political and administrative systems. While the investigation unravels

the nexus, political leaders are engaged in endless and meaningless blame games while ignoring the real security issues at stake. The illegal influx from across the border not only poses a

serious security threat for the country, but is also drastically changing the demography of the border districts. A look at the statistics will bring out the magnitude of the problem. In

April 2025, police detained more than 1,000 suspected illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, including women and children, following combing operations in Ahmedabad and Surat. There have been

regular reports of arrests of illegal immigrants from various places, clearly pointing that they have spread to almost everywhere in India. In March, Delhi Police arrested 28 Bangladeshis

who illegally entered India by crossing the Benapole and Hakimpur borders in West Bengal. Authorities have recently arrested illegal Bangladeshi immigrants not only in the bordering states

of Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, and West Bengal but also in Delhi, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and even Kerala, where police arrested 27 illegal immigrants in Kochi in January 2025. It seems that no

place is out of bounds for them, and even Himachal Pradesh, a state where Islam was never an issue since Muslims constitute just over 2 per cent of the population, has simmered with

communal tension over the unauthorised expansion of a mosque in Sanjauli town last October. As per government data, BSF has apprehended 2,601 Bangladeshi intruders at the IndiaBangladesh

border between January 2024 and January 2025. It is hardly likely that any of them will ever be deported to any other country. Even in Assam, a state that was most affected by the influx of

illegal immigrants from Bangladesh, which had sparked huge discontent and a prolonged student movement, there has hardly been any deportation. Between March 2013 and July 2020, Assam could

deport only 227 Bangladeshi nationals, despite over 136,000 individuals being declared foreigners by the state’s Foreigners Tribunals ~ that too when there was a friendly regime there. The

present regime, which prefers to turn a blind eye to the daily atrocities being unleashed upon minorities, would be unlikely to accept any immigrant. In November 2023, the National

Investigation Agency (NIA) had arrested one Shaha – buddin Hossain and two other accomplices, all Bangladeshi nationals, in Tamil Nadu, as part of a human trafficking network involving

illegal migrants from Bangladesh and Myanmar in an operation spanning 55 locations across 10 states and Union Territories. The arrested suspects facilitated illegal immigration by forging

Indian identity documents like Aadhaar and PAN cards and had control over 100 to 150 individuals at various workplaces across India. They forged Aadhaar cards of deceased persons and

provided their identities to the immigrants living here while availing the benefits of government schemes, and also to open bank accounts and procure ration and SIM cards. NIA has obtained

information about Rohingya settlers in many states, including Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Maharashtra, besides, of course, Assam and West Bengal. The influx of illegal immigrants has now

developed into a flourishing industry ~ the fees charged by the agents range from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000 per person, facilitated by an elaborate ecosystem of brokers and agents on both sides

of the border. Fees cover the cost of entry and faking of official documents like Aadhaar, ration car – ds, mark sheets, PAN cards etc. to be provided to them. It may not be a mere

coincidence that in recent times, a section of the Muslim population seems to have be – come increasingly assertive about their religion, especially following the recent regime chan – ge in

Bangladesh. On 11 October 2024, during the Durga Puja rituals at a local Puja pandal in the Garden Reach area of Kolkata, a group of approximately 50-60 individuals entered the pandal and

demanded that music being played be stopped forthwith, as it was disturbing their Friday Namaz. It followed similar restrictions officially imposed on Durga Puja in Bangladesh. There were

minor skirmishes and use of abusive language by this group before senior members of the Muslim community and the police diffused the tension. Bengal has an abiding history of communal

harmony, but during the anti-Waqf (Amendment) Act protests in April 2025, Murshidabad district in West Bengal witnessed violent clashes between Muslim protesters and police, resulting in at

least three fatalities, besides torching of police vehicles, vandalism of public and private property, and disruption of transport services. Following the unrest, more than 400 people,

mostly Hindus from areas like Dhulian, Suti, and Shamsherganj of the district, had to flee their homes for fear of life. Many of these displaced families crossed the Bhagirathi River and

took shelter in a relief camp set up at a high school in Baishnabnagar in Malda district, and many still feel too insecure to return. Preliminary investigations suggest involvement of Bangla

– deshi nationals, and reports received by the Union Ministry of Home Affairs suggest that participation of Bangladeshi infiltrators who were allegedly supported by local leaders

exacerbated the unrest. Indian Hindus becoming refugees in independent India was seen only in Meghalaya; now even in West Bengal, a mainstream state, this has happened. The Chief Minister

has accused “outsiders”, read BJP, and the BSF of instigating the communal flare up in a state that has remained largely free of communal violence. This was not unexpected, since Muslims

continue to constitute a large and loyal vote-bank for her party. Disturbingly, arrests made by law enforcement agencies also point to a dangerous liaison with terrorism. On May 9, even as

Operation Sindoor was on, two suspected members of a terrorist organization, Jamaat-ulMujahideen Bangladesh were arrested by the West Bengal Special Task Force in Birbhum district; they were

apparently planning to carry out targeted attacks against specific individuals and locations in India. Two Pakistan-trained terrorists linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) were also later

arrested in the same operation. NIA has also conducted simultaneous searches at nine locations recently in J&K, Karnataka, Bihar, West Bengal, Tripura and Assam, in connection with the

activities promoted by illegal Bangladeshi nationals as part of Al-Qaeda’s conspiracy to destabilise India. We do not know the depth and reach of such terror networks being operated by

illegal Bangladeshis in India, but the threat to our security is too serious to be distracted any more by political mudslinging. Our international borders on the east are highly porous. Of

the total 4,096-km long Indo-Bangladesh border, only 3,326 km have been sanctioned for fencing, and 2,937 km have been completed. Most of the 1,643-km-long India-Myanmar border also remains

porous through which people move freely. Following the ethnic unrest in Manipur, the Union Government has decided to fence the border, but there are strong local objections, and also by the

Mizoram government. Fencing, if at all, will take a long time. In March 2025, the Parliamentary Committee on Home Affairs recommended expediting the completion of fencing, and conducting

regular assessments to identify gaps in border infrastructure and illegal Rohingyas settled in India. We do not know, but many such immigrants may already be voting in our elections. A Rajya

Sabha MP has suggested linking the Aadhaar with Voter cards, but that may open up another avenue for illegal immigrants to become bona-fide Indian citizens. It is high time the governments

in border states as well as citizens are sensitised to the threats that may someday endanger our survival as a nation. (The writer is a commentator, author and academic. Opinions expressed)

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