The decision to fence the Indo-Myanmar border should also ideally be followed by a serious thought on fencing the Indo-Nepal border.
The recent decision of Government of India, as announced by Union Home Minister Amit Shah that the entire stretch of 1,643 km of Indo-Myanmar border would be fenced, followed by the decision to scrap the Free Movement Regime (FMR) between India and Myanmar, are welcome steps. Previously, under FMR, members of hill tribes, who were citizens of either India or Myanmar, and residing within 16 km from the border, were usually allowed to cross over and stay for a maximum of two weeks per visit.
However, that was on paper. In reality, the open border between India and Myanmar has been used for all kinds of nefarious activities, including rampant smuggling of contraband items, narcotics, illegal weapons, has served as an easy pass for insurgent groups to sneak in and out, as well as for vested interests to give shape to a systematic demographic shift that has only resulted in making significant parts of Northeast India more restive and prone to violence for decades.
The concept of open border may have had its relevance in the past, but given the kind of adversaries that India has to grapple with, such open borders have only been an invitation to trouble, and nothing else. Take for example the open border that India has with Nepal. There is no denial that people of India and Nepal share deep cultural, historical and religious ties. Cross border marriages have been a norm than an exception. But the open borders between India and Nepal have been used with elan by Pakistan, and now China, to sneak in men, money and material, for giving shape to all kinds of subversive activities in India.
It is no rocket science how ISI has used the open border to its advantage for spying and for orchestrating acts of terror in India. Also, there has been an alarming demographic shift that one can witness along the Indo-Nepal border stretch in Bihar and parts of UP. A potential foreign hand choreographing it from behind, cannot be ruled out. In October 2023, it was reported that a Special Investigating Team (SIT) of UP Police initiated a scrutiny of the foreign funding angle in the near 4,000-odd madrasas that have sprung up along the Indo-Nepal border. The Maoists too, for long, have had a free run along the open border—at will sneaking in and out of India.
Some major efforts have been initiated by Modi Government to deal with such challenges in the past few years. Sashastra Seema Bal or SSB, that guards the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders, has seen augmentation of its force level by 12 more battalions, thereby taking the sanctioned force strength to almost 1 lakh personnel. However, without a formal fencing in place, it is extremely challenging for the forces to keep a check on movements.
Therefore, much on the lines of Indo-Myanmar border fencing, it is time that India also considers fencing of the Indo-Nepal border. Having cordial relations with one’s neighbour does not mean that one’s house should not have walls or fencing. Cordial relations can be maintained even by ensuring proper fencing in place and check posts at regular intervals for containing people to people connect.
On a larger dimension, India now must consider having a National Border Policy in place to effectively deal with all kinds border related issues, including not just the fencing of open borders but also effectively dealing with porous borders. The Indo-Bangladesh border is fenced in most places but still has areas where porosity does exist. It has been similarly used for cross-border smuggling of fake currencies, illegal weapons, narcotics, human trafficking, spreading of radicalism and also has been used by certain radical hardline groups to orchestrate a demographic change along Indo-Bangladesh border regions. Parts of Assam and Bengal are now facing its brunt.
Though Government of India, since 2014, has been taking several actions to strengthen border surveillance, and BSF’s jurisdiction has been enhanced from 15 km to 50 km on the Indian side, even then India needs a whole new architecture in the realm of rules of engagement, as well as in dealing with cross-border smugglings and crimes, which should no more be considered as law-and-order issue, and instead should be dealt as national security issues. Such infiltration has often worked like Trojan Horse to wreak havoc later.
The reason why India needs a National Border Policy is because in this era of hybrid war, the hinterland cannot remain secure if borders are not dealt strictly with. What enters illegally through the border does not stay in the border alone. It permeates throughout, like a virus through bloodstreams. Even though India has extremely cordial relations with both Nepal and Bangladesh, ideally the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh borders have to be secured and surveilled with as much intent as the Indo-Pakistan border is done. Such open and porous borders have been seen to be susceptible to be exploited devastatingly against India’s interest, and there are limitations to what the Governments of Bangladesh and Nepal can do to contain that, in spite of their best intents. Therefore, India has to do the needful to secure its own future.
The National Border Policy, as proposed here, must also deal with the whole issue of creating stringent deterrence to illegal infiltration. For far too long, people have sneaked into India, either forged Aadhar and Voter Id cards, or got hold of genuine identity cards through forged documents, and simply melted into the crowd. While actions are now being taken against many such modules, who are found facilitating such illegal infiltration, some even being charged under stringent provisions of UAPA, what India now needs is a law that prosecutes not just operatives of such modules, but also illegal infiltrators, with jail up to 10-15 years, especially those who fail to show any evidence of having been persecuted in their own countries. For far too long illegal infiltration happened into India purely to become vote bank of certain political parties, and to change demography, be it through Myanmar or Bangladesh, and the impact of the same is visible along border regions. The violence in Manipur has a lot to do with demographic changes that happened as a result of open border with Myanmar.
Finally, while the Indo-Myanmar border would now be fenced on a mission mode, naysayers and cynics would invariably come up with different kinds of excuses as to why it is futile to fence. It is true that no fencing can ensure one hundred percent that there would no longer be illegal infiltration or smuggling. But can that be a good enough excuse for not having a functional fencing in place? Even if it helps in containing seventy percent of the menace, it can be considered a grand success.
It is now imperative that guarding the 1,643 km long fenced border would require augmentation of manpower for Assam Rifles. But first Assam Rifles must decide if it wants to do the border guarding job or solely focus on its counter insurgency duties. If it does not want to give up on management of the Indo-Myanmar border then it must seek sanctions for more battalions from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and focus on the border guarding job on equal footing. Or else, it must give it up to specialized border guarding forces like SSB, BSF or ITBP, as the MHA deems fit.
Pathikrit Payne is a New Delhi-based geopolitical analyst and columnist.