Presence of Illegal Immigrants in Contemporary Assam: Analyzing the Political History of the “Problem”

Eastern Quarterly Vol. 7, Issues III & IV, Autumn & Winter 2011, pp. 104–13 Presence of Illegal Immigrants in Contemporary Assam: Analyzing the Political History of the “Problem” BITASTA DAS The approach of the Indian state in resolving the complex issues of Assam through development and military means requires immediate revision. The problems faced by the state are no more localised, but carry national and global significance. Assam witnessed yet another progression of violence in July–August 2012. About a hundred people lost their lives, several brutally wounded, villages set ablaze and thousands were displaced in a mere 30 days time. To rein in the deteriorating law and order conditions, the Union Home Ministry authorized Assam government to deploy as many as 116 companies of central armed police forces comprising of altogether 11,600 personnel. The central government grasping the magnitude of impairment announced a special assistance to the tune of Rs 300 crore; of which Rs 100 crore was for relief and rehabilitation, another Rs 100 crore for development programmes in the riot-affected areas and an additional fund of Rs 100 crore under Indira Awas Yojana for the riot- affected areas. However, what surfaced as a political quandary was the unprecedented repercussion of this violence in other parts of the country. The political jeopardy ensued a conundrum in deciphering and understanding pertinent questions regarding the state and law, security and rights and status of citizenship and foreigners in the country. The violence in Assam which had its epicentre mainly in only three districts of Bodoland Territorial Area Districts – Chirang, Dhubri and Udalguri – propelled an unheard of cataclysm in the major cities of the country. In Mumbai two persons died and 46 were injured when a protest against Assam riots turned violent. Demonstrators torched vehicles, pelted 104 stones, forcing the police to fire in the air and use batons to disperse the unruly mob. But what perhaps can be regarded as one of the drastic failure of the state in the recent times towards securing faith in the law among the citizens was the exodus of the people of north-eastern states from Bangalore in the fear of retaliatory violence against them. The mass panic that spread virally through SMSes and social media led thousands to leave their jobs and studies and flee for life as the state in futility struggled to assure security to the people. Newspapers and television flashed news and visuals of hundreds of people waiting anxiously in the railway stations to make their journey of over 68 hours back home. The fact that the violence in Assam is not merely a localized, isolated occurrence but has deeper rooted historical and political underpinning, have been laid open by these recent incidences. The specific violence is rather symptomatic of possibilities that have been persistent since a very long time and have not been translated in understanding the north-eastern region of the country in proper light. A revisit of the indices of the cause provides opportunities to unravel the issues that have clamored within the political and social fabric of Northeast India. REVISITING THE INCIDENT The present conflict was sparked off on July 20, 2012 when unidentified assassins reportedly killed four Bodo youths at Joypur Namapara in Kokrajhar of Bodo Territorial Area Districts. In apparent response to this, unidentified gunmen opened indiscriminate fire at Duramari village predominated by the Bengali-speaking Muslim population, which killed one and injured five. This triggered of a violent outbreak in Kokrajhar and spread to Chirang, Dhubri and Udalguri districts. Mobs burnt down houses, forcing thousands of people to flee. In this violent outbreak which continued for about a month, official figures said around a hundred people were killed, of which three died in police firing, over four lakhs people were displaced, rail services throughout Bodoland Territorial Area Districts were disrupted and there was a complete breakdown of law and order situation. The state enforced indefinite curfew from time to time and a large number of special security personnel were engaged to restrain the violence. The army staged flag marches in violence affected and sensitive areas. A rapid glance at the opinions raised during and after the incidence of the present violence forefronts that the malady is far from being transitory and envelopes several critical layers that lurk at the face of the region. The local and the national media reported the news under two general perceptions, as 105 the communal riots and (which is more commonly used to describe the conflicts in the north-eastern states) ethnic conflicts. Hagrama Mohilary, the chief of Bodo Territorial Council, declared that illegal immigrants were involved in the clashes. Calling it a political conspiracy to destabilize the council, he demanded immediate sealing of India-Bangladesh border. Tarun Gogoi, the Assam’s chief minister, vehemently denied the involvement of foreign national. He said that it was an outcome of a sense of deprivation and conflict of interests among different communities. He told the press that such issues could be addressed only through development, which was their priority.1 L.K. Advani, the senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader, categorically stated that Assam was not facing Hindu versus Muslim conflict. Rather it was a conflict between Indian nationals versus foreigners. He accused both the central and the state governments of colluding with the infiltrators from Bangladesh. Several organizations including O-Boro (non-Boro) Surakshya Samiti urged the state’s Chief Minister to review the agreement signed between the government and Bodo rebels in 2003. According to them, the agreement, which they called a “Himalayan blunder” has provided political encouragement to the Bodo chauvinist forces to launch ethnic cleansing drives. UNRAVELING THE PROBLEM Assam has been a locale of continuous violence after independence. The fact that colonial Assam was divided into five different states testifies that there has been instability in accommodating and integrating the various ethnic groups within the new political framework. The trajectory that led to the formation of Bodoland Territorial Area Districts, an autonomous region, itself lays out many enmeshed issues prevalent in the region. The Bodos are the largest plain tribe in Assam. There had been a feeling of exclusion and negligence among them since a long time. “Economic, cultural and political marginalization” of tribals by the Assam government and the growing threats of land encroachment from “outsiders,” especially the immigrants population from Bangladesh (then East Pakistan), were among the reasons which led the All Bodo Students’ Union (ABSU) and Plains Tribal Council of Assam (PTCA) raised the demand of carving the union territory of Udayachal for the Bodo people, first in the late 1960s. During the anti-foreigner Assam movement, many of the Bodo youth sided with All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) in the demand for detection and deportation of illegal immigrants from Assam. But when the post-Assam Accord enthusiasm waned, the tribals began to perceive that the Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) government’s stance towards the safeguard and development of the tribals was not much different from the previous governments.2 As 106 disenchantment spread among the Bodo youth, the ABSU took over the leadership and launched a movement in 1987 for the creation of separate Bodo state, “Bodoland.” In addition to this, there was the rise of a number of Bodo rebel groups like the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and Bodo Liberation Tiger (BLT). In period that followed, the Bodo inhabited area became an arena of violence and lawlessness. Finally by July 1999, the BLT declared unilateral ceasefire in response to the central government’s appeal for talks. In 2001, the BLT gave up its demand for a separate state and reconciled itself to the politico-administrative arrangements for autonomy under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian constitution.3 This led to the signing of a Memorandum of Settlement for the creation of Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) in February 10, 2003 between the representatives of central government, state government and a BLT delegation. The violence that occurred in July-August 2012 in the Bodoland Territorial Area Districts is in fact perceived as a direct response to the uncontrolled settlement of illegal immigrants in spite of securing a political territory exclusively for themselves by the Bodos. According to an Assam-based sociologist, the foremost factor that lies in the background of the recent violence is the massive change in Assam’s demographic landscape which has made the Muslim migrants of East Bengali (and later Bangladeshi) origin a dominant force in the state at the expense of the progressive marginalisation of the indigenous communities.4 The issue of immigration in the north-eastern states in general and Assam in particular has attained a magnanimous attention within the public discourse and politics. The issue, however, cannot be called contemporary. TRACING THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF IMMIGRATION IN ASSAM Two of the most important developments that occurred in the political history of Assam in the first decade after independence were the incorporation of the Sixth Schedule and settling of refugees from Pakistan (formerly East Bengal). Gopinath Bordoloi, the then Chief Minister of Assam, advocated for the protective clauses of the Sixth Schedule.5 Bordoloi-led Assam government, however, fell-out with the central government, particularly with the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, over the question of settling further refugees in Assam. Nehru threatened to cut central assistance by saying that, “if Assam adopts an attitude of incapacity to help solve the refugee problem, then the claims of Assam for financial help (would) obviously suffer.”6 This was despite the fact that Bordoloi drew attention of the central government towards the growing pressure of the state’s cultivable land and the existence of as many as 1.86 lakhs landless Assamese peasants.

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