Legalising the illegalities and committing political hara-kiri

Tanuj Goswami

(tanujuri03@gmail.com)

With the Assam Assembly election-2026 drawing closer, several accumulated burning issues that have bedevilled the state for quite a long time are now resurfacing. The foremost and dreaded, and also the most talked-about, issue of illegal immigrants in Assam has in the meantime done irreparable damage, and the last nail on the coffin box is dangerously imminent.

Despite an impending threat of engulfing every nook and corner of Assam, a large number of indigenous communities of our state are still unable to visualise what an alarming future awaits them.

The CM of Assam, with his foresightedness and being the most efficient administrator of the state, has very accurately and pointedly referred to different underplaying hidden agendas carried on by vested elements in the state with the clear objective to usurp Assam politically, economically and demographically, which has the dangerous potential to relegate the indigenous communities not only to second-class citizens in their own homeland within a short timeframe but also to be the most persecuted lot in the time to come.

Most deplorably, the so-called political parties of Assam, namely the Congress and the AIUDF, whose ever inimical and long-drawn anti-Assamese stand has pushed the state to a point of no return. A robust sub-nationality of the Northeast famed for its outstanding bravery, rich culture and illustrious historical past is going to sink into oblivion. As things stand today, a back-breaking and most undesirable reality is staring us in the face today, which no one can deny. All other parties across the political spectrum in the state look confused and rudderless and utterly unconcerned and unfazed about the serious undercurrents actively operating to finish a state beyond redemption.

Most of our young or budding politicians have failed to create a sense of purpose with an abiding belief. Their sole intention is to contest the election and get elected by dubious means and enrich themselves with power and pelf. Neither any vision nor mission makes them exceptional at all, and thus they are letting their motherland go to the dogs.

But none of the opposition parties worth its name has any pertinent, concrete and bold initiative at their hands to challenge the festering issues so far. The opposition parties, which are a ragtag bunch of selfish people with no hardened, clear-cut and affirmative agenda to navigate a heavily troubled, torn state, seemed hopelessly in disarray. Many of them are adept at turning the coat as and when the situation warrants.

The recent eviction drive taken up by the government – nevertheless an abnormally delayed initiative just before the state election – was no doubt a very encouraging and courageous step. Out of many such drives across Assam, one at Uriamghat made me reminisce about those days when I was there as the Sub-Divisional Officer (Civil) in the year 2008 for a brief period of less than one year.

Prior to the beginning of the year 2000, the encroachment on Sector 3 of Uriamghat under the Dhansiri Sub-Division was going on in full swing by hordes of unknown persons of a particular community from different corners of Nowgaon, Morigaon and many other far-flung districts.

With the security forces provided by the CRPF Commandant stationed at Uriamghat, we made a number of visits to those encroached areas and studied the situation and found it quite alarming, as large-scale illegal activities of all kinds were smoothly continued with gay abandon. The government agencies concerned, particularly the Forest Department, were mute spectators. Some local persons, Gaon Pradhan and Lot Mondals, were hand in glove and assisted some of the encroachers in exchange for money and even got their names enrolled in the electoral rolls at different times.

The issue of governance did not loom large there and failed miserably with no abiding action taken. Several such serious infractions of government rules and regulations and sustained anomalies, discrepancies and illegalities were dutifully reported and brought to the higher authorities of the government. But nothing happened at all, and it was just sheer wastage of time and mockery of justice at its best by an elected government.

The Chief Minister of the state, who was at the helm of affairs then for as long a period as 15 years, most often used to call his bluff boastfully without even the slightest hesitation, declaring that if anyone could show him a single illegal immigrant in Assam, so what is the best one can hope for from such a person, who is heart and soul an Assamese-educated gentleman? Was it not a crude, shameless appeasement of a particular community or vote bank politics or a craving for political power? Can a community survive under the leadership of such a person who had no prick of conscience at all?

The modus operandi that worked in Uriamghat is the same elsewhere in Assam.The ongoing eviction drive must be sustained, and the government should be ruthless in driving out those undesirable people complying with the guidelines as defined by the High Court.

The design hatched for the Islamisation of Assam or the Northeast is no longer a secret affair; it’s an old divisive ploy on the cusp of fulfilment in no time due to a group of greedy and treacherous political leaders in the garb of secular politics, rampant appeasement and an insatiable appetite for power and pelf, even at the cost of their own motherland. The people of Assam are at an inflection point; it is a time for collective action – not for bad, petty politics, which is ruining our communities to the core.

Our neighbouring sister states of NE have successfully thwarted the onslaught of illegal immigrants, saving their own culture, customs, community, economy and demography.

The people of the state of Meghalaya have even turned down the infusion of a huge amount of Central funds for a railway project, just for the genuine fear of outsiders flooding in, along with the sustained demand for the provision of ILP (Inner Line Permit) and work permits for the outside workers with no right to settle down and own land rights in Meghalaya. Does our government have the temerity to demand ILP or at least the implementation of Clause 6 of the historic Assam Accord, which is considered the holy grail to save Assam from a devastating catastrophe of an unprecedented nature? No one else outside of Assam can ever imagine what is roiling Assam and its consequential serious ill-effects of turning the state into a second Kashmir.