Communal sentiments flaring up in Assam
By Barun Das Gupta
The law and order situation in Assam following the Bodo-Muslim ethnic clashes of July has improved much but the political situation is getting communalized. Communal elements of the two major communities are trying to snatch the initiative and change the nature of the conflict from Bodo versus Bengali Muslims to a Hindu-Muslim conflict. The situation that obtains in Assam makes it easier for such elements to fish in troubled waters easily.
The public sentiment in the Brahmaputra Valley is against the Bengali Muslims, who are generally known to be ‘Bangladeshi infiltrators’. The Bodos knew this mass sentiment and exploited it skillfully by turning to the Bengali Muslims first and dubbing them infiltrators, who had entered illegally from across the border. This evoked, as they had expected, a ready response from the people of the Brahmaputra Valley. The BJP, the AGP and their front organizations found a fresh casus belli against what they call ‘infiltrators’.
Just at this moment a section of leadership of the Bengali Muslims took an ill-advised, ill-timed and provocative decision to call an Assam Bandh on August 28. In trying to enforce the bandh in the Valley, activists of the All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU) and the United Movement for People’s Rights (UMPR, an umbrella organization of eight minority bodies), came into clash with businessmen, owners of shops and establishments and educational institutions at many places.
The clashes took a communal turn. At some places newsmen were also roughed up. One person was killed in mob violence at Khairabari in Barpeta district. Thirty houses were burnt, forcing police to open fire. At Tezpur, vehicles of government officials were burnt. Curfew had to be imposed. In another area, a two-thousand-strong mob carrying lethal weapons came on to the main road and attacked the police near Bhojkhowa char area. Effigies of Hagrama Mohilary, the Chief Executive Member of the Bodoland Territorial Council were burnt – an act of gross provocation to the Bodos.
There was a strong reaction in the people cutting across party lines. The Press decided to boycott the AAMSU till the latter apologized. The BJP demanded the banning of the AAMSU and the arrest of its leaders under the National Security Act for stoking communal passions. The AGP also stepped up its campaign against the ‘infiltrators’. Even the Assamese Muslims condemned the bandh. The AAMSU and its myopic political mentors had managed to put themselves in splendid isolation. Some AAMSU members have since resigned. The All India United Democratic Front and its leader Maulana Badruddin Ajmal have also come under criticism.
Meanwhile non-Bodos living in Bodo areas feel a strong sense of insecurity. The camp refugees are being threatened that they would be shot if they dared return to their homes. (There are nearly two lakh refugees living in around 215 relief camps in the State). The secretary of an organization of resident Bengalis at Kokrajhar has resigned out of fear. Others fear that after driving out the Bengali Muslims, the Bodos may target them next. They are uneasy that the Bodo People’s Front MLA Pradip Brahma, who was arrested in six cases in connection with the July incidents, has been released on bail
Mischief-makers in the majority community are not sitting idle either. They are out to take full advantage of the situation. Recently, a Kali temple at Dhubri town was desecrated and ornaments of the idol were looted. The incident immediately raised the communal temperature. The identities of the miscreants are unknown but many believe there is more in it than meets the eye. It is pointed out that about a couple of months ago, ornaments of from a Ganesh temple at Dispur, within a stone’s throw of the State Secretariat, were stolen but there was no hue and cry over it.
An unconfirmed report says that several hundred refugees from relief camps have suddenly vanished into thin air when the authorities decided to check papers concerning their citizenship before allowing them to return to their homes. It is suggested that they fled to Bangladesh. But how such a large number of people could hoodwink the police and the Border Security Force and cross the border is not explained.
In another recent development, towns like Jorhat, Koliabor, Tezpur, Dumduma and Mangaldoi have seen men and women come out in streets in large numbers and raise a chorus of uludhwani (ululation). The response was not as enthusiastic in Guwahati. People are being asked not to give jobs to the ‘Bangladeshis’ (who can be hired for low wages) and warned that non-compliance will invite social ostracism.
Under tremendous political pressure and for fear of alienating public opinion in the Brahmaputra Valley, the Tarun Gogoi government has also changed its tune. It concedes there are illegal immigrants in the State who need to be identified and deported. The identity papers of those taking shelter in the refugee camps have to be scrutinized. In many cases, such scrutiny is impossible because the houses and property of the people put to flee had been burnt, destroying documents about their land tenureship (patta) and voter identity cards. Copies of these documents cannot be secured without the cooperation of the local officials, which is quite unlikely to come. All that the people in the Valley are hoping and yearning for now is that the Durga Puja festival next month goes off peacefully and nothing untoward happens. (IPA Service)