By Barun Das Gupta
If the BJP was confident of winning the next year’s Assembly polls in Assam, it is doing everything that it should not do. Recently, Pradyut Bora, a member of the BJP’s National executive and a former convener of the party’s IT cell, resigned, criticizing the style of functioning of the Modi-Shah duo. Modi, he says, has damaged the party’s democratic image while Amit Shah was individualistic and authoritarian.
His charge is that all power is being concentrated in the hands of the duo, so much so that External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj ‘barely knows’ that her Foreign Secretary was about to be sacked. Bora was also critical of the attempt to rope in the highly controversial dissident Assam Congress leader Himanta Biswa Sharma into the party.
As if this were not embarrassment enough, all the five BJP members in the State Assembly, too, voted for the government-sponsored resolution calling on the Centre not to change the existing pattern of Central assistance to Assam as a ‘special category’ State. The resolution was adopted unanimously. As a special category State, Assam gets ninety per cent of Central assistance as grant and ten per cent as loan (90:10) while other States get it at the ratio of 70:30.
Even now, the Centre is not following the 90:10 ratio for special category States in five specifically centrally-funded schemes; These are, (1) Command Area Development Scheme (pattern of assistance being 50:50); Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan (70:30), (3) Rajiv Gandhi Panchayat Sashaktikaran Yojana (75:25), (4) National Mission on Agricultural Extension and Technology, (75:25), and Assistance to State for Infrastructural Development for Exports (80:20). This is an issue on which the entire people of the State are united. If the original funding pattern is not restored, it will definitely be a major issue in next year’s elections.
BJP spokespersons, however, deny the charge that the party’s popularity has declined. They point out the massive victories of the party in the recently held civic elections. But critics say that the success was due more to factional fighting in the Congress rather than to BJP’s rising popularity. If the Congress had fought the elections unitedly, they argue, the results would not have been as flattering to the BJP as they look now.
BJP has lately made some gains in the Bodoland areas of the State, where several Bodo leaders have joined the party. This may be due to the fact that the Bodos are resentful of the presence of the large Bengali Muslim population in what they consider to be ‘their’ territory. Several armed clashes between the Bodos and Muslims have taken place in the past two to three years. The Bodos look upon all Bengali Muslims to be ‘Bangladeshis’ or illegal infiltrators. The BJP supports the Bodos in driving out the Bangladeshis.
The dream of achche din ayega that the BJP had sedulously created before the last year’s Lok Sabha polls is evaporating like a midday mirage. Common people find that prices of all commodities – from medicines to cereals to vegetables – are steadily rising while the official propaganda dishes out statistics of WPI and CPI showing downward trends. This is a hard reality staring the people in the face every day and no propaganda can change the reality.
The Centre has also alienated large segments of the electorate in Assam by undertaking a fresh exercise to prepare a National Register of Citizens. The NRC will be based on the first NRC prepared in 1951. The second NRC now being drawn up will include all those who were recorded in the first NRC together with their progeny. And those that came to Assam before March 25, 1971 from outside India or from anywhere else in India and settled in Assam. March 25, 1971, is the so-called ‘cut-off’ date because on that date Bangladesh declared independence and therefore there could be no reason for the people of former East Pakistan to migrate to India due to fear or persecution. This is the official stand.
Those that came to Assam after the cut-off date and have been residing in the State continuously since then, even if they are Indian citizens, will be permanently disqualified as voters. Traders and businessmen from other States, labourers, even officers serving in different all-India cadre like IAS or IPS – all will be disqualified, to go by the present stand of the Centre. This has created strong resentment among different sections of the people. Since the move has been made by the BJP-run Union Government, the anger is against the BJP.
If the Centre does not change its stand, the people affected will resist. It has already antagonized the about-to-be disenfranchised Bengali Muslims and Hindus. They fear that they will be declared ‘infiltrators’ and driven out of Assam. As Bangladesh will never accept them, the prospect of their being forced to take shelter elsewhere, especially in West Bengal, looms large before them. (IPA Service)