Prospect of Assam BJP graduating to 3.0

Tanuj Goswami 

(He can be reached at tanujuri03@gmail.com)

Recently the CM of the state is reported to have asked the people to be enthused with how a small nation, Israel, prospered with unmatchable growth and development. Israel, despite being perched in the midst of a group of autocratic and brutish Islamic states with their sole objective of wiping out this tiny state from the world map, stood tall and strong.

Any Israeli, irrespective of his/her political persuasion, puts the nation’s interest foremost, and no nation, however powerful, can ever dare to challenge Israel. Unalloyed love for the motherland, daily prayer, hard work, and relentless search for innovation are the hallmarks of Israeli lives and of a modern, highly democratic, and free nation. Can we ever match with them, at least in loving our own state, ‘Assam,’ which stands battered, ravaged, pillaged, and ignored by many of its own sons of the soil?

Of late, the BJP 2.0 in Assam has stolen the march on the opposition parties in the state by-election for five seats. The fractious opposition parties had no consensus and solid base as well to stand on, while the Congress, with one of its MPs’ supercilious attitude, upended not only the opposition unity but nakedly showcased the party’s one-upmanship.

There is no denying the fact that the State BJP under the stewardship of the present CM has so far successfully charted out a well-meaning course for peace and development of the state. Assam, or for that matter the whole of Northeast, considering its geographical remoteness, was perennially neglected for quite a long time by the federal government, and consequently the region stayed isolated and driven to a morass of underdevelopment. Unfortunately, it slides into a hotbed of motley groups of separatists with numerous conflicts, contradictions, ethnic clashes, violence, and unrest.

In Assam, the situation turned into another big human issue of illegal immigration from neighbouring Bangladesh, creating massive demographic changes impacting badly on the state’s economy, identity, social fabric, and culture, and finally pushing the state’s indigenous people to minority status in their own motherland.

The peaceful, legitimate demands and demonstrations at different times, and having lost numerous precious lives with their supreme sacrifices, the core issue of deporting the illegal migrants is still on a distant horizon and will never be materialised under the present government system.

The serious illegal immigration issue has been made to lose its hype and bearing, and the successive government’s policy of deliberately dragging its feet ultimately pushed this grave issue of national importance to an insignificant local issue.

The damage perpetrated in the nasty business of vote bank politics by some political crooks of the Congress party in Assam had stabbed in the back of indigenous communities, which is a disaster of epic proportions and beyond redemption. It was a raw deal at worst for the people of Assam. The superior court’s caustic historic observation on the ill and dreaded effects of immigration on the state of Assam even failed to nudge the political parties.

Meanwhile, the BJP government at both the centre and state levels is seen to have been initiating a plethora of actionable measures to kickstart the developmental process in Assam and the Northeast, which reeled under several decades of inaction, indifference, neglect, and underdevelopment.

So far, Assam is concerned the pathetic developmental indexes in all sectors warranted rapid reorientation and active re-articulation to spike up growth and bridge the widening development gap in relation to the national averages.

The state is fortunate to have a real worthy in the persona of the incumbent CM-Assam—one having sufficient efficiency and knowledge on most governance issues, suffused with assorted ideas, and capable of rolling out a raft of insightful schemes, policies, plans, and programs as a development mantra under different departments/ministries. A further uptick of a slew of reform initiatives in respect of certain acts, by-laws, and policies for investment is awaited. 

Assam has unique and tremendous potential, particularly in agriculture and tourism sectors and areas still to be extensively explored, and if harnessed properly with the right mix and infusion of modern technology and use of AI, drones, and startup groups, a sea of changes in the economy will soon unfold.

Vast areas of northern and southern Israel, which are the best agricultural fields, producing excellent fruits and many agricultural products by way of the most modern methods, were to be evacuated because of Israel’s seven front wars. The economy of Israel is impacted badly as the roaring tourism industry also came to a grinding halt. In this defining moment, a big majority of Israelis have been busy in small businesses exporting assorted homemade products despite continuing horrors of war.

Based solely on promises made by the NDA Government for implementation of clause VI of the Assam Accord, the BJP outclassed the Congress only with the massive support of the people of Assam. The committee constituted by the government and headed by a retired judge of the Gauhati High Court, BK Sharma, in respect of the quoted clause above, submitted its report with a set of recommendations for constitutional, legislative, and administrative safeguards for the indigenous people.

Those recommendations were vital and considered as the holy grail to protect the local people from the existential crisis looming larger and larger. Meanwhile, in 12-13 districts of Assam, the indigenous communities are reduced to a minority, and the population pattern in other districts is also fast changing, and lands belonging to locals are surreptitiously being transferred like daily household commodities in Assam.

At this hour, what is at stake is our future, i.e., the existential threat—it is exactly what the Israelis are facing in the Middle East and fighting for. The evolving geopolitical changes across the world, particularly in our neighbouring countries, tend to pose deep anxieties for us. Assam has been an easy target for sleeper cells and a fertile ground for fomenting Jihadi activities, having extensive networks far and wide.

In the above context, the BJP Assam needs to be in perspective and gird up its loins to the broader sense and interest of the indigenous communities and convince the Centre at any cost to initiate thorough implementation of Clause VI of the Assam Accord.

We need faster growth and development, wide-scale application of generative AI, startup groups, and innovation, but first things first: we have to secure our future (survival) through strong protective gear with constitutional support to keep us afloat. Here lies the mantra for the BJP for graduating to 3.0 and onwards: political parties of any other hues in Assam can never guarantee our future, nor can they find a definitive solution for a secured future.