Opinion Next: An exodus

The ominous message of the rumour that caused this exodus is this: “Beware. If this is done to our people,we’ll do this to your people.”

The fact that fake and doctored images of violence “done to our people” were used to incite passions only goes to show that this was a well-planned psychological assault. The implicit threat to the Indian state and Indian society is clear: “Forget about sending what you call illegal immigrants in Assam back to Bangladesh. We’ll strike fear in the people from the North-East,studying and working in other parts of your country,and make them go back to their states.”

I’ve used the phrase ‘your country’ in the above sentence deliberately. Those who masterminded this psychological warfare on our sisters and brothers from the North-East clearly don’t regard India as their country—certainly not India in its present political,geographical,secular and demographic reality. They hate this India,and want it to be transformed into a nation of their theocratic and fanatic vision. A small glimpse of this hatred could be seen in the menacingly violent protest action organised by them in Mumbai on August 11. They didn’t spare even the sacred memorial that honours the martyrs of India’s War of Independence in 1857. That war remains the finest chapter in India’s history of Hindu-Muslim unity against alien rule. But anything that celebrates,and seeks to further cement,Hindu-Muslim unity is anathema to the protesters’ separatist vision.

Precisely because the present political,geographical,secular and demographic reality of India is unacceptable to them,they see nothing wrong in the illegal influx of immigrants from Bangladesh into Assam and other parts of India. Never mind that no Muslim nation—not even Saudi Arabia,which is home to the two holiest Islamic shrines—permits Muslims from other Muslim or non-Muslim nations to settle illegally. Bangladesh itself has categorically told Myanmar: “Rohingiya Muslims are your citizens and it is your concern to take them back from Bangladesh.” In India,alas,there is no sanctity for our borders,laws or the verdicts of the Supreme Court. Instead,votebank politics welcomes tens of lakhs of Bangladeshis to enter and settle in our country.

A dark thought enters my mind here. Will there someday—perhaps a few decades from now—be an exodus of Assamese people from Assam into other parts of India? Are we psychologically and politically ready to prevent Assam’s further partition? Don’t rubbish this as a spurious and alarmist thought. It is rooted in both the history and the present perilous reality of Assam,that hapless and insecure land whose greatest bard,the late Bhupen Hazarika,lamented as far back as in 1968: “Today’s Assamese must save themselves or else they will become refugees in their own land.”

The unchecked influx from Bangladesh (earlier from East Pakistan) has dramatically changed the demographic composition of Assam,especially in its border districts. This has also changed the politics of Assam,where a party supported by foreign immigrants,AUDF,has suddenly grown large enough to be the main opposition party. No Congress leader dares to speak the truth about the influx of foreigners,not even Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh,an MP from Assam for the past 22 years. Look what he said in his Independence Day speech on Wednesday: “The incidents of violence in Assam recently are very unfortunate…Our Government will make every effort to understand the reasons behind the violence.”

With due respect to you,Dr Manmohan Singhji,does your government still need to make efforts to understand the reasons behind the violence? After the abject failure of Rajiv Gandhi’s much-trumpeted Assam Accord in 1985 and the deliberately flawed IMDT Act that his government had legislated; after the Supreme Court striking down the IMDT Act as “unconstitutional”; after the Supreme Court warning your government that the unchecked influx of foreigners into Assam constitutes “external aggression”; after governor after governor of Assam warning the Centre that this influx poses a threat to India’s unity,integrity and security; after your own party’s chief minister,Tarun Gogoi,giving vent,in a rare moment of candour,to the seriousness of the problem by stating last week that “Assam is sitting on a volcano”—after all this,does your government still need to understand the reasons behind the recent violence? If so,the future of India is unsafe.

Accepting the existence of a problem is the first step towards being able to solve it. Sadly,the Congress is afraid of taking even this first necessary step. As I have often stated in this column,full protection to native Muslims in Assam has to be an integral element of any effective solution to the grave problem that Assam—and India—are facing. As far as foreigners are concerned,they must be treated the way foreigners are treated by all other law-governed nations.