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Abstract

A political impasse is created between India and Bangladesh over the issue of inundated influx of Bangladeshi immigrants, mainly to the Northeastern part of India. The difficulty in deciphering the reality of these immigrants is creating an imbroglio. There have been frequent skirmishes between both the nations over the responsibility of this group of people, who are paradoxically regarded as transnational migrants. This is so, as they, in a defacto sense, belong to both the nations, but in actual sense is unwanted by either side. It further creates a situation of statelessness for them, with massive rights violation. This problem has persisted for decades, with the issue being exploited by the political parties as election rhetoric for vote- bank politics. Lack of data on the exact amount of immigrants and the ambiguous national legislation has further aggravated the situation.The introduction of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 further adds to the complication with the element of inequity in their treatment being a part of their proposal. The tension remains unabated creating crisis both at the level of inter-state relation and also causes demographic and social tension within the nation itself.Improvement of the relation between the two countries is crucial as it can have security implications for the South Asian region and the entire world community at large.The paper as such is divided into three parts. The first part pertains to the historiography of the immigrants, in order to understand the circumstances that compelled them into a state of statelessness. The second part analyses the situation in India with this infiltration, particularly in North East India. The insurgency in the region is also thriving on this pretextof protecting their region from infiltrators, which they believe the Indian state has failed to provide them.The last section would highlight the issue of statelessness of these people and the concern of human security pertaining to their existence.

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