Freedom after many midnights

Even the sternest of critics of Indian foreign policy will find it a tough task to question some of the diplomatic feats that New Delhi has managed to notch up of late. The settlement of the dispute related to the maritime boundary with Bangladesh in July 2014, albeit after an intervention by an international tribunal, was one of these. And as if to mark its anniversary, the long-running land boundary dispute was buried in July. The enclaves on both sides were exchanged quickly after the required formalities by the midnight of July 31. Settlement of inter-country disputes — especially those that involve sacrifice of territory — are always the most remarkable of achievements, howsoever cordial their relationships might be. So settling a dispute that involved issues that ran counter to the very opening lines of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, that recognises ‘equal and inalienable rights’ of the ‘human family’ to ‘freedom, justice and peace’, is a creditable achievement. Indeed, the enclave issue involved the denial of the right to freedom and justice to many. It had its roots in Partition. Now, as the national flags of the respective countries fly in the 162 former enclaves, it is time for the state to set up the infrastructure as quickly as possible to mitigate the trauma of citizens who lived without a country for decades. From now on, the diplomats’ responsibilities are less than those of the local administrative authorities.

The enclave question was tossed around for too long and was never seriously acted upon. The obfuscation of justice helped none. Now the questions of citizenship and legality can be redefined. The ‘illegal Bangladeshis’ of the enclaves — predominantly those from the minority community — have become ‘legal’ because the states felt the time was conducive to award the ‘inalienable right’ to the poorest of the poor. Perhaps if there were different sets of political parties, leaders or diplomats in both the national capitals, the enclave-dwellers would still have been considered ‘a security threat’ and arrested across the line, as was being done until just last week. There are more people now crossing continents and concertina wires for survival — more often than not without state-stamped papers — and thus it may well be the time to recollect and record the memories of our nationals who suffered just for being born in the enclaves. Maybe what we need now is not a powerful state or a diplomat, but a historian to document the plethora of personal narratives on both sides, which are otherwise bound to be forgotten. For in the words of Tolstoy, “Historians are like deaf people who go on answering questions that no one has asked them.”