by Nava Thakuria
Addressing the nation from the Red Fort on 79th Independence Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a strong statement against the infiltration and well-planned conspiracies to change the demography in some bordering localities, which has the potentiality to emerge as a threat to national security. His concerns were echoed by Assam Chief Minister Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma in Guwahati, while hoisting the national flag on the auspicious occasion. The alluring Bharatiya Janata Party leader vowed to erase the menace of infiltrators in Assam and thereby indicated that the ongoing eviction drives against the illegal settlers would continue till every inch of encroached land is reclaimed. Putting a blame on the bureaucracy under the previous (read the Congress) Governments, Sarma cautioned that the aggression of suspected foreign nationals has already changed the demography (by increasing the population of Muslims) of western Assam, but he asserted, the inherent effort to do the same in eastern part of the State must be restrained. Now Asom and Asomiya cannot afford to be reluctant while monitoring the grabbing mentality of encroachers, asserted the outspoken leader, adding that the Jati-Mati-Bheti of indigenous population must be protected.
Pursuing a series of eviction drives to reclaim hundreds of thousands of bighas of Government lands (including forest and water bodies), the State Government has drawn national (also partially global) media attention as Sarma publicly stated that the initiative was necessary to prevent the demographic invasion by the people from a particular community (read Bangladesh origin Muslims). Terming the trend as “Land Jihad”, the energetic politician exclaimed, “We have lost our culture, our land, our temples. On many occasions, we are desperate for survival (definitely not for revenge). One may identify it as a losing battle, but will continue our fighting for the soul of Assam within the purview of law.” Earlier, he made a stunning revelation that the Muslims (enjoying a high birth-rate) will form over 50% of Assam population by 2041. As per the 2011 Census, 34% of the State population (3.12 crore) is constituted by a religious minority and if 3 % are identified as indigenous Assamese Muslims the rest (31%) should be understood as migrated Bangladesh-origin Muslims (to the tune of over 97 lakhs), voiced Sarma, adding that the socio-political situation had already turned hostile for indigenous families in various districts like Dhubri, Morigaon, Barpeta, Nagaon, South Salmara-Mankachar, Goalpara, etc.
The spirited Chief Minister also floated hope for the locals, saying that the authorities had lately reclaimed 1,19,548 bighas of encroached land with the massive eviction drives in Barshola, Lumding, Burapahar, Pabha, Batadrawa, Chapar, Paikan and Rengma localities. No less than 50,000 people were affected due to the operation for getting back nearly 160 square kilometre Government land. He also reiterated the Government’s resolve to continue the eviction drives with an aim to reclaim over 7,040 Bighas of land under the districts of Barpeta, Nagaon, Bajali and Lakhimpur, which belong to 922 Sattras (Vaishnavite monasteries). The Government initiative inspired a number of ethnic organisations to launch a movement to drive out Miya settlers (a term popularly used to define the Bangladeshi Muslims in Assam) from North East India. For records, the North East Students’ Organisation (NESO) recently staged a demonstration in different parts of the region demanding an urgent deportation of illegal migrants which may pose a serious threat to the future generation in their homeland.
Now a new narrative is being attempted by many to establish that the reclaimed lands would be allotted to the corporate groups (as the Government assured lands for corporates during the Advantage Assam 2.0) and hence the eviction drive should be brought to a standstill. The propagators in various mainstream and digital media outlets continue to raise voices that corporations will only exploit the resources (acquired lands) with no economic benefits to the locals. In other words, they tried their best to convince the Asomiyas that corporate groups are more destructive than the encroachers (even though most of them are Bangladesh origin nationals). Probably, a critical moment has arrived for the Asomiyas to decide who they presume more dangerous- the corporate or the illegal migrants, against whom Assam witnessed a six-year long agitation in the 1980s.
Recently, when Jamiat-Ulama-i-Hind chief Mahmood Madani demanded the resignation of the Assam Chief Minister by taking responsibility of the ongoing eviction drives and even book him under hate speech laws, the Assam leader showed him Burha-Anguli (a complete rejection) asserting that he has Assamese blood, full of strength and courage. Arguably the largest and influential body of Indian Muslims, the Jamiat claimed thousands of Bengali-speaking Muslims were harassed in Assam during the drive. But Madani was denounced not only by the BJP workers, but also the common Asomiyas, strongly arguing that the actions against the encroachers must continue to safeguard the rights, identity and free-will of indigenous population in Assam.
(The writer is a journalist covering North East for decades)
