Not just agitprop

Twelve years after the Assam Accord, its most important element is finally getting the attention it deserves. Last week, the tripartite mee...

Twelve years after the Assam Accord, its most important element is finally getting the attention it deserves. Last week, the tripartite meet between Union Home Minister Indrajit Gupta, the All Assam Students8217; Union and the Assam Government sought to evolve a quot;wider consensusquot; among political parties and replace the ineffectual Illegal Migrants Detection by Tribunals Act of 1983 by a more adequate piece of legislation.

It is a crucial decision because insurgency in what is left of Assam was born of the foreigners8217; problem. For a decade and a half, it has dominated political discourse in the state, at the expense of equally important problems. Hopefully, its resolution will help the state to return to normalcy. While the issue had been misused to lend credibility to very questionable forms of political action, it is no mere agitprop. Between the 1970 and 1990 censuses, for instance, the population of the district of Dhemaji more than doubled. In the same period Kokrajhar, an extremely troubled district, showed a growth rate of 75 per cent.

Only rampant immigration could account for such incredible growth rates. In 1993, when the demolition of Babri Masjid sparked off violence in Nagaon district, the State Government admitted that it was a case of Bengali Bangladeshi Muslims fighting Bengali Hindus. The Assamese were not involved. But, since Hiteswar Saikia8217;s government depended heavily on the immigrant vote bank, it was in no position to back the AASU8217;s repeated calls for full implementation of the Assam Accord, by which Bangladeshis who had settled in Assam after 1971 would be deported. The AASU8217;s ire is understandable. These immigrants are not displaced persons like the erstwhile East Pakistanis who once swamped West Bengal. In their case, humanitarian concerns do not apply. And in a state like Assam, where development has been poor, the implications of mass immigration for employment opportunities can be serious. The AGP8217;s stand, of course, is rather suspect. It supported the AASU demands earlier, but did a quick volte face after coming to power with the help of the immigrant vote bank.

Now that the Centre has expressed its willingness to deal with the issue, the people and parties of Assam should develop the quot;wider consensusquot; that the Home Minister has alluded to. It would be unrealistic to expect that a few million immigrants can be identified and deported by an administrative exercise. An immigrant who set up home a quarter of a century ago will not take kindly to government officials telling him that he has outstayed his welcome. Bloodshed, more insurgency and a series of unstable governments would be the immediate result of any such attempt. Far from insisting on the terms of the Accord, the Assamese should focus on more realistic and workable solutions. Instead of starting with 1971, they could think about the border infiltration which continues even in 1997. Sealing the borders of Tripura, Meghalaya and West Bengal alone will provide enough work to keep various arms of the administration busy for a very long time. After that, the Assam Government can try and identify settlers who entered Assam in the nineties, and then the eighties. By the time they can start dealing with the seventies, the foreigners8217; issue would probably have been forgotten, and the government will be able to go ahead with its real task: development.