Photo: Arkadripta Chakraborty
Assam and illegal migrants are so inseparable in the political lexicon of the country that any new mention of it hardly raises any eyebrows. So, why has a statement by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on the issue suddenly become so important? Maybe, because “illegal migrants”, commonly used to refer to the migrant Muslim population from Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan), has now been applied to the Hindus who came to Assam.
At a press conference in the state capital, the Assam chief minister said, “We have suggested to the Centre to give them (Bangla-speaking Hindus) refugee status on humanitarian grounds; they entered Assam illegally, fearing religious persecution. If the Centre agrees in principle, then a detailed time frame and modality can be thought of, and this is an issue which is part of our manifesto as well.”
Cries have since got louder about how the Congress is now playing the Hindutva card to thwart the challenge of a growing BJP influence in the Northeastern state. And not all protesting are politicians.
Madhab Chandra Ghosh, 87, a rice trader from lower Assam’s Bongaigaon district, had come to Assam in 1962 through the Bangladesh-West Bengal border. His name first figured in the voters’ list in 1965 and ever since he has voted in every single election until the 2011 Assembly polls, when he was identified as a “doubtful voter”, also known as D-voter, a unique way of identifying alleged illegal migrants from Bangladesh in the state’s voters list. The 2011 Assembly polls had barred D-voters from casting their ballot.
“There are six votes in my family,” says Madhab. “My wife, our two sons and two daughters-in-law were allowed to cast their votes and I was marked as a D-voter. I have proper land documents, ration cards, National Population Register certificate and bank documents. I don’t understand how all of a sudden I have become a doubtful citizen.” Madhab feels cheated and used by the Gogoi government; in fact, he is totally disillusioned with the Congress, who, he feels, used him.
“All this while we have voted for the Congress,” he says bitterly. “But the Congress has always preferred Bengali-speaking Muslims over us, simply because they are a vote bank.”
Madhab’s words ring true for the thousands of Bengali-Hindu voters who continue to languish under the “refugee” tag and are classed as D-voters despite having valid documents like land deeds and ration cards. Gogoi’s announcement is largely being seen as aimed at garnering these Bengali-Hindu votes, something that has benefited the Congress in the 2011 Assembly election.
While touring the Barak Valley region of southern Assam, comprising the three districts of Cachar, Karimganj and Hailakandi, Gogoi had asked for ‘refugee status’ for Bengali-Hindu migrants in Assam. It got him handsome returns. For the first time in Assam’s electoral history, the Congress was able to win 13 out of the 15 seats in the Barak Valley, a traditional stronghold of the RSS and the BJP.
With the 2014 General Election looming, the chief minister has once again unbottled his favourite genie — asking the Centre to come up with special laws to grant refugee status to those who came from Bangladesh due to religious persecution.
It is an open secret in Assam that since Independence, the demography of the state has undergone a major change due to the illegal influx of refugees from Bangladesh. Today, Bengali-speaking Muslims comprise 32 percent of the total population, and they are all seen as a sustained vote bank of the Congress.
Compound it with the consistent rejection of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the face of Assamese nationalist politics, in elections post 2001, and the growing clout of the Maulana Badruddin Ajmal-led All India United Democratic front (AIUDF), and you get an idea of why this move is important for the Congress.
Over the years, the Bengali-speaking Muslim voters have gradually shifted from the Congress, helping the AIUDF win 18 Assembly seats in 2011, to become the main Opposition party in Assam. “It is very clear that the AIUDF favours illegal migrants,” says Pankaj Sharma, an entrepreneur from the upper Assam town of Jorhat. “The 2012 Bodo-Muslim riots in Kokrajhar have created a huge fear among the indigenous communities that the Congress will not protect them. Both the Assamese and Bengali Hindus cannot rely on the AGP, so a lot of people like me will switch to the BJP.”
Gogoi is aware of this and is, therefore, leaving no stone unturned in finding new voters. At the Northeast Conclave held two weeks ago in Guwahati, BJP president Rajnath Singh made it clear that his party is taking all 25 Lok Sabha seats in the Northeast, including Sikkim, very seriously. As of now, he said, the party would contest the polls alone in Assam. “All state units of the BJP in the Northeast are strong supporters of Narendra Modi and he will himself spearhead the party’s campaign in the region,” says former BJP MP Kiren Rijiju. “The Congress has used Muslims only as a votebank, sidelined the Hindus and meted out a step-motherly treatment to the tribals. We will work for each and every community.”
According to sources, the Congress high command is giving a “serious thought” to a poll alliance with the AIUDF , given that the latter also supports the UPA at the Centre. If that happens, the Congress could lose more votes of indigenous communities. All the more reason, therefore, for Gogoi to look for another votebank, in this case, the 18 percent Bengali-Hindu population of Assam.
But, the AIUDF , which has made its own overtures to other communities in the state, is not openly cosying up to the ruling party. “The Congress is playing the politics of divide and rule in Assam,” says AIUDF Organising Secretary Aminul Islam. “It tries to brand us a party that favours only Muslims, but the reality is that we have members from different communities. Many prominent Bengali-Hindus have shown their willingness to contest the Lok Sabha polls on our ticket.”
Back in Bongaigaon, Madhab believes that the Congress move is only driven by a need to gather votes. “The genuine Indian is harassed as a D-voter, the Congress is not bothered, and now it wants votes,” he says. Close to where Madhab stays is a “refugee colony”. In 1959 and 1970, in two phases, 108 Bengali-Hindu families, who had migrated from Bangladesh, were given land to settle by the Congress government in Assam. Decades have passed, but these families are yet to get their land documents.
“We pay municipality and water tax, we have been writing to the state government to regularise our settlements by giving us our land deeds, but they have not done it,” says Sunil Poddar, one of the residents of the colony. “There are 108 families here, everyone has their ration cards and other documents. There is not a single D-voter among us, yet land has not been allocated to us. This shows the indifference of the Congress towards Bengali-Hindus in Assam.”
This gives the BJP its carpe diem moment. “If Gogoi is so caring about the Bengali-Hindus, what has he done to stop their harassment in the name of D-voters?” quips state BJP spokesperson Shiladitya Dev. “What has he done to improve the employment of Bengali-Hindus in government service? First, the Congress plays the politics of minority appeasement in Assam, and now they are turning to Bengali-Hindus.”
In 2009, the Congress had won seven out of 14 Lok Sabha seats in Assam. The BJP had won four. With the Congress facing anti-incumbency after being in power for 10 years at the Centre, Gogoi is in for a tough ride. If he fails, the dissident camp in his party will have more reasons to attack him.
One of the keys to averting failure is to earn the trust of the Bengali-Hindu voter of lower Assam. Will that too be affected by the Modi euphoria that has gripped the rest of the country? The CM would surely hope not.
ratnadip@tehelka.com
(Published in Tehelka Magazine
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