Assam gripped by schizophrenia

The events unfolding in Assam in the past few months ever since Himanta Biswas Sarma took over as Chief Minister are ominous to say the least. Extra-judicial killings have spiraled and all on the plea that those killed were drug peddlers or criminals that allegedly tried to escape from prison. The latest round of eviction drive in Darrang district have led to the most inhuman killings that occurred on Thursday. Police blame a Muslim organisation for fanning the communal flames while police allege that the those settled on illegally occupied spaces had attacked them. What’s bizarre is that a man armed only with a bamboo was shot at and killed by police. The man who was killed apparently tried chasing away the policemen who had come to evict the illegal settlers. This man then ran into another group of armed policemen who shot him at two places, killing him instantly. But what followed the killing is shocking. An official photographer hired by the district administration of Darrang to capture the eviction drive seemed to have acquired the face of a avenger. He stomped on the dead man’s body and even dealt him a few blows until he was arrested by the police. The video capturing this gruesome incident has since gone viral. It’s also intuitive that the photographer Bijoy Shankar Baniya carried an outdated press card issued by some news agency from Kolkata.
Was it a coincidence that the police team was led by Sushanta Biswa Sarma the SP of the district and also the younger brother of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma? And yet all this seems to have the sanction of the larger ‘Assamese’ community. Discussions on social media clearly demonstrate the deep schism in Assam’s society today. A large section of the intellectual class endorses the Government’s move and argue that the reason why the BJP was voted to power is because it promised to deal with illegal migrants with a strong hand. The Assamese have long held the belief that illegal settlers in Assam have been occupying their land for the past several decades without any checks from the elected, who have conveniently turned these “Bangladeshis” into their vote banks. This gentry alludes to the past Congress-led governments which they said just sat back and did nothing about the unabated illegal migration from across the porous border.
It’s not a simple matter to evict settlers who possess documents and to accuse them of having procured those wrongfully. Assam is a victim of history and of contested boundaries and nationalities. What’s needed is a humanitarian approach to the citizenship issue.