Author: N. K. Pant
Publication: The Pioneer
Date: January 10, 2001
If the current series of massacres
are any indication, Assam seems to be fast sliding into the Kashmir mode
and hence needs to be tackled with a strong political will without further
delay.
The governments, both at the Centre
and in the State, owing to their indifference, have allowed the terrorists
turned criminals to spill blood for too long a time.
What makes matters worse is ULFA's
(United Liberation Front of Asom) alleged links with Pakistan's ISI, which
is well entrenched in adjoining Bangladesh. It had earlier exposed its
seditious tilt to Islamabad during the 1999 Kargil operations. ULFA commander-in-chief
Paresh Barua's reported escape from hideouts in Bangladesh and taking shelter
in the safe havens of Karachi has confirmed Pakistan's connivance in fanning
terrorist activity in the North East.
The intelligence agencies are not
off mark in their assessment that ULFA is involved in proxy killing on
behalf of its ISI masters based just across the Indo- Bangladesh borders.
The two decade long militancy in Assam is closely connected with well-organised
infiltration from across Bangladesh, which shares long porous borders with
the State. Our eastern borders are not fenced on the lines of Indo-Pak
borders on the western sector. Since security check posts are few and far
apart, it is quite easy for thousands of foreign nationals to walk into
the Indian territory, where their already well-settled compatriots help
them to start life anew in a foreign land. This has resulted in significant
demographic alteration in the region which needs to be noted with concern.
Though the anti-foreigners movement
of the early eighties launched by the AASU (All Assam Students' Union)
was basically against the Bangladeshi intruders to begin with, it also
had some covert undercurrent against all outsiders settled in the state.
ULFA's latest killing spree aimed at Hindi-speaking settlers of Bihari
and Marwari communities is the manifestation of this feeling harboured
especially by a few stray chauvinistic elements in the State. Most of these
Indian citizens have been living in Assam for several generations and form
inalienable part of the region's social and economic milieu. Their contribution
to the State's economic well- being cannot be wished away. But it is jingoistic
sentiments against them which seem to have been exploited by ULFA as demonstrated
by the latest series of ethnic cleansing of "outsiders."
For more than a century, Assam has
been the haven for migrants. In the closing decades of the 19th century,
British rulers brought thousands of labourers from the tribal belt of Orissa
and Bihar to work in tea estates in the Brahmputra valley. Many enterprising
Marwaris and thousands of poor Biharis followed them as traders and low-paid
menial workers. Along with them also came in large numbers Muslim migrants,
mainly agriculturists from the then East Bengal.
It is these people who still continue
to pour in large numbers till today and what rings the alarm bells is the
sudden transformation of Assam's districts bordering Bangladesh into Muslim
majority regions. If this influx is not checked forthwith, the natives
of the Brahmaputra valley, a few years hence, may find themselves in similar
plight which the Kashmiri Pandits are presently undergoing in the Vale
of Kashmir. The ISI seems to be working on the strategy of balkanising
India, through this perennial exodus from Bangladesh.
The objective appears to be to create
ripe conditions for carving out a new country in the region which will
be sympathetic to Pakistan. It is very likely that hordes of aliens, whose
number runs in millions after having altered the demographic balance of
the State, are conniving with ULFA terrorist cadres to create fear psychosis
amongst the settlers from other Indian states.
Increasing number of Bangladeshi
intruders are trying to grab the low level employment opportunities by
dislodging Biharis from professions like tilling lands, selling fish and
vegetables, and pushing carts. The latest incidents of mayhem proves that
a joint conspiracy of the ISI and ULFA is at work to divide the society
with the aim of driving out non-locals from Assam. Many people from Bihar
who eke out a living in the countryside have indeed left the State.
While the authorities in Dhaka officially
deny presence of millions of illegal Bangladeshis in Assam and elsewhere,
any action to identify and deport these unwanted elements is condemned
as ill treatment of minorities by politicians with vested interests in
this slice of population as a potential vote bank. Encouraging the surplus
population to migrate to India seems to be the covert Bangladeshi policy
pursued in connivance with fundamentalist organisations and the ISI. This
is notwithstanding a India-friendly regime being in power in Dhaka.
The gravity of the situation requires
the entire stretch of international borders with Bangladesh to be fenced;
more security check posts to be established as well. (The Union Home Ministry
is understood to have sanctioned the funds for the purpose but progress
of work is very slow.) Finally, the ongoing census can also be utilised
to identify the foreign nationals residing in the State.