It’s not Muslim vs non-Muslim,says Ajmal

“How can such a high officer in such a responsible position ignore the facts and say that ‘illegal migrants’ have attacked the Bodos?” Ajmal said. “I also told fellow-MPs to make the demand that he be removed from the post for his communal views,and they did in the recent session.”

Brahma had also written that the population of Muslims had been going up by “leaps and bounds” and in the 2011 census,“11 of the 27 distrcits of Assam would be Muslim-majority districts”. Ajmal disputed this. “We have data from various studies and censuses to say this is wrong. How can an EC quote wrong figures like this?”

He hit back at Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s allegation that parties “like the BJP and the AIUDF” had communalised matters by making a exclusive case for Hindus or Muslims. “How can you say that?” said Ajmal,whose party is the main opposition in Assam. “We never see it as a Muslim-non-Muslim problem. My information is that 60-70 per cent of the Bodos are not Hindus,but Christians or Animists. How can this be seen as a Hindu-Muslim issue?” he said.

“The point is that the roots of the crisis lie in the Bodo leadership now wanting to control the area and turn Bodoland into a Bodo nation,and that can never happen. This was something that late minister for internal security Rajesh Pilot had also highlighted,and he was right. The current leadership of the Bodos,before the Accord and after,have been battling non-Bodos,not just Muslims. They have been after the Adivasis,the Rajbongshis and others,including Muslims. In fact,after a spate of violence in 1993,many non-Bodos,mostly Adivasis,Santhalis,were evicted from their homes. Now,more than 30,000 of those families are still in camps in their own state. Now again,interested parties are making it a Bodo versus Muslim issue for electoral gains here and elsewhere.”

Attacking the BJP,Ajmal said,“L K Advani came here and raised the bogey of the illegal migrant,and then Praveen Togadia followed suit and said the same thing. The genesis of the problem lies in how the NDA government,when Advani was home minister,divided up the Bodoland Territorial Council — by handing over areas where Bodos are 20 per cent and giving them the right to dictate terms to the remaining 80 per cent. Of the 40 seats in the council,how can they,with just 20 per cent of the share of the population,have 37 seats reserved for them? The BJP did it with a view to cultivating the Bodos as a future constituency,but they went with the Congress. Now,the Bodo leadership there,especially the local representatives,are attempting to take control by driving away all rightful settlers. That cannot be allowed to happen. Now the BJP leaders,when they visit Assam,make statements to ensure that a complex Assam problem gets viewed in the national framework of what the BJP wants to do.”

Citing census data,he said,“It is with political motives that a false charge is made about the rising numbers of illegal immigrants,when it is absolutely clear that those who came before 1971 are legal. [The ancestors of most Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam came in the late 18th century from what was East Bengal.”

Ajmal,who has a large perfume business and divides his time between Assam and Mumbai,said,“I reached Assam after the 20th,when the violence erupted,and we set up relief camps. We then got to Delhi and met all responsible people,bringing to light the fact about lakhs of people,Muslims and non-Muslims,who are now forced to live in camps in their own state. We are now keen that nobody makes statements that again inflame cooling tempers.”

But when he discussed the violence in Mumbai’s Azad Maidan last month as protests were organised to empathise with “Assamese Muslims in camps”,he defended the “right” of people elsewhere to organise such protests. “It is wrong how protests were allowed to get out of hand and cause violence as they did,due to the fault of the police or whoever,but everyone has the right to protest about it outside,” Ajmal said. “After the killings of Sikhs in the US recently,I was in Parliament and I saw how MPs behaved and others too did elsewhere,charged with emotion against the killings. It is natural for such protests to take place if others get killed also,is it not?”