By Morning Star Sumer
One can feel the pulse of a people from what is debated in the media. Unfortunately only a few of the indigenous people seem to be concerned about what is happening around them, while the majority appear to be over-indulgent about non-essential matters like the performance of our sportspersons in the world Olympics. So, it is heartening to read Urikar Sangma’s letter sharing his views on the Kokrajhar violence and drawing inferences from it to warn of what it portends for the indigenous people of North-East India (ST Aug ,2012).
While not holding any brief for any political party, I would whole heartedly agree with BJP Leader, LK Advani’s observation that the mayhem we are witnessing now in Assam was waiting to happen because of immigration, whether legal or illegal. The majority of immigrants are illegal – some are driven by economic pressures and most by political design. The Assam governments’ design to populate Bodoland with immigrants of all hues without the consent of the indigenous people, is to change the demographic balance of Bodoland for carrying out their insidiously strategic plans. In Meghalaya the Assam government has been carrying out the same insidious plans. The political classes in both states are seemingly oblivious of all these.
Immigration to the present day Meghalaya was planned by the Nawabs of Bengal, Bihar and Orissa long before the so-called Battle of Plassey (23 June 1757), and, before the present tribal states were gingerly attached as excluded or partially excluded areas to then province of Assam under the provisions of the Government of India Act, 1935. Siraj-ud-Daullah (1733-1757) entertained dreams of ruling over a Greater Bengal which included the erstwhile Bengal, Bihar, Orissa and their surrounding areas extending to the North-eastern India’s tribal areas. Sir Syed Muhammed Saadullah, the only knighted person in North East India in 1928, and the Prime Minister and first Chief Minister of United Colonial Assam, pursued an aggressive policy of migration of Muslims from then Bengal into then United Colonial Assam which included all the present tribal states in North-East India. This aggressive policy of migration was pursued by Sir Syed Muhammed Saadullah (1937-1938; 1939-1941 and 1942-1946) in pursuance of the dream of Siraj-ud-Daulah (1733-1757). That dream was killed on the field of the so-called Battle of Plassey (23rd June, 1757) and, when, betrayed by his own kith and kin, he was killed on 2nd July, 1757.
There are signs of attempts at the revival of that dream now by zealots who aspire to the formation of a Greater Bangladesh which would include present day Bangladesh, West Bengal and its surrounding areas, Assam and all its neighbouring tribal states. The Pakistan’s ISI is also very much in the game fomenting troubles wherever it can by highlighting differences between neighbouring countries with the help of the zealots most of whom are religious fanatics who regard Siraj-ud-Daulah as a hero who stood up against British imperialists – replaced now in their radar by Indian “secular imperialists”.
Wittingly or unwittingly the governments of Assam and Meghalaya as well as the Union government are accelerating the process of fulfillment of that dream by playing significant roles/parts in the current drama of vote-bank politics in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) areas where the migrants out-number the indigenous Bodos. The Assam government insists on calling migrants “displaced persons” to push them into relief camps, while the Bodo community wants the Assam government to identify them in their relief camps. Vote banks politics has blinded the powers that be to the reality of the situation which will not fail to manifest in all tribal states, sooner or later, if governments persist with their blind and unethical pursuit of votes in elections. The chilling fact is that the situation now in the BTC areas is likely to replicate in Meghalaya and elsewhere, unless the so-called “displaced persons” from BTC area or from across the Bangladesh border or from elsewhere, are properly identified and dealt with according to law. Are our people listening? Other concerned people like Naba Bhattacharjee who, in an article, “Tackle influx before situation goes beyond redemption” (ST Aug 8,2012) has drawn attention to the same issue – influx.
Another device used by our governments (State and Central) to advance the cause of aggressive migration and infiltration by non-tribals is the clandestine enrollment, in electoral rolls, of the so-called refugees who had been clandestinely settled in various places in the state. There are villages called Panibari, Amjong and Umsiang in the Mawhati Constituency, in which non-tribal and/or non-indigenous tribals have been settled without so much as a by your leave from the local residents. If reports can be believed, there are 30 indigenous tribal households against more than 270 non-tribal households; and these non-tribals have been clandestinely enrolled as electors in the electoral rolls of the constituency. There are others we may not be aware of just now. In Ri- Bhoi District there are many villages populated largely by non-tribals and non indigenous tribals: Kongkatkuli, Ruber Khuli, Narbong and Raja Bagan, etc, are some among many of these.
Interestingly, a non-tribal AK Khan is a Voter Returning Officer (VRO) who is alleged to be clandestinely conducting enrollment of non-indigenous tribal and non-tribal refugees as voters in Mawhati constituency. The constituency Returning Officer, Ms. I Mawlong, when approached by the NGOs, expressed helplessness as the procedure was ordered by the Central government. What is the State Government’s role in this ? Are the political parties and NGOs listening? To make matters worse, we have governments who are indolent and insensitive, while the state’s boundary lines are being shifted inwards by a neighbouring state with impunity. A specific requirement for securing the borders with neighbouring states is to possess relevant maps which should be acceptable internationally; but our state government does not have any! This fact is revealed when RTI activist Ms. Agnes Kharshiing sought information about the maps from the concerned department and was told that the Vol 4 of “Compilation of State and Districts Maps of Meghalaya” is missing! Will the hon’ble CM throw some light on this matter? Or is he above being accountable for this lapse on the part of his minions?
So, it is impolitic to rely on the political classes to solve any political problem. Therefore, it is left to the man in the street to fend for himself though the means to do so are with the political classes.
The first step is for all concerned citizens to be serious about what is happening all over the world, especially in our own country, to draw inferences as Urika Sangma has done in his letter. What happened in recent years in the independent South American States, where indigenous people under the leadership of their own presidents have been challenging the might of the United States, miffing the powers that be there; and, recently in West Bengal where petty land owners, under the leadership of Mamata Banerjee had rebuffed the State as well as the Union governments, are examples portending what may likely happen even in India. Our intellectuals should get together to organize a movement to be led by mature personalities – not by half- baked leaders of our governments and NGOs! Such a movement should begin with a call for codification of our customary laws, beginning with land laws to be followed by others. After accomplishing that first step or, even contemporaneously with it, the movement should initiate moves to reform governance in our state.
However, please hold your horses; the movement should avoid street confrontation with governments. What is required is governance reformation not government changes.
I have personal knowledge of what is going on along the Assam-Meghalaya boundary line to enable me to see the sinister design the Assam government has been having on Meghalaya as well as on other North-Eastern States with the Union governments under any party/parties only winking at it with an eye for vote banks!