However, the dysfunctional relations apply to other aspects too. India ceaselessly complains about porous borders and lakhs of illegal Bangladeshis in India. Bangladesh says that there are none. That country’s refusal to acknowledge its citizens who reject what its system has to offer by voting with their feet does not speak well of its political health. But that is beside the point. What do such dysfunctional relations mean for Assam?

When India deports a Bangladeshi, the person is dropped in the no-man’s land between the two countries. No sovereign country is required to accept a person unilaterally deported by another country. But on this issue it is unlikely that India and Bangladesh can ever speak a shared language; how can we, when we are not doing that even inside our own country? There is already perennial confusion about the cut-off points and what separates “homecoming” from “infiltration”; many of our politicians and senior security establishment figures behave as if they have never heard of the Nehru-Liaquat Pact or the Indira-Mujib pact. We cannot let this carelessness extend so far. Letting the security establishment hijack our foreign policy priorities mortgages the future well-being of Assam.

The writer is honorary professor, Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi express@expressindia.com