As elections to the Assam State Assembly draws near the rhetoric of hate towards the Bengali speaking Muslims who are termed as “Miyas” is gaining traction with Chief Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma leading the charge. It was on the eve of another election in Assam in February 1983 that the Nellie massacre occurred. In what was a planned and targeted attack on Muslims within a few hours thousands of people were killed. Official figures claim that 2,191 people were killed but unofficial estimates suggest that there were over 10,000 deaths. Then too the victims were Bengali speaking Muslim peasants. Nellie should have been a stern reminder that it cannot be repeated but people and institutions have short memories. Today’s politicians have weaponized fear and use it for vote bank politics. Fear of the illegal migrant has permeated the minds of the average Assamese speaking population (Muslims included) that they see no wrong in the manner in which the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) has been used to exclude names of Bengali speaking Muslims from the electoral rolls. Add to that the plight of all those who are still awaiting justice following the National Register of Citizens’ (NRC) exercise.
While it is agreed that illegal migrants from any country cannot be allowed to live in this country. However, there is a historical past when Assam was part of the Bengal province and people from both sides of the divide lived and worked within that province until India was partitioned in 1947 and sharp borders were drawn that divided peoples’ homes and families. This is true of other parts of North East India too such as Manipur, Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. There is no denying that people from Myanmar and Bangladesh cross over and obtain identity documents. But this is a failure of those guarding the borders and of the system itself. There is a way of extraditing such illegal migrants. But that demands that the country that is supposed to take back its citizens recognises them as such. There is a process involved and people cannot just be pushed back and nor can they be treated inhumanly. But that is the clarion call from no less than the Chief Minister of Assam, which has prompted activist Harsh Mander to file an FIR at Dispur Police Station citing Sarma’s recent press conference urging BJP workers to file mass voter list objection against the “Miyas” if only to trouble them.
In the Garo Hills posters, allegedly issued by the ISIS-K militant outfit threatening the Garo people have been put up at different places. It warns the Garos living in the plain belt areas to vacate their land before 2027 or face severe consequences. While Police attribute this to some kind of trouble mongering but considering that these are areas that border Bangladesh, the threats cannot be dismissed lightly especially at this juncture when Bangladesh faces an internal crisis if not an implosion. The politics of hate works both ways. Victims often become perpetrators of violence and there is no knowing what people who find themselves at a dead end are capable of. At this juncture the judiciary should step in and put a stop to the politics of hatred and division which violate the key principles of the Constitution.
