Sonowal couldn’t convince

Sonowal couldn’t convince

While the people of Assam continue to be in agitated mood over the BJP-led government’s adamant stand on passing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, state chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has made a public statement through which he has only tried to assert that the controversial Bill was on its way to become an Act in the immediate near future. While the Bill has been vehemently opposed since the JPC submitted its report to Parliament, chief minister Sonowal was maintaining a stoic silence until on two days ago when he opened his mouth for the first time in a Bhogali Bihu function at Nagaon. Sonowal claimed that he would fight till the last for protection and interest of the indigenous – khilonjiya and bhoomiputra – and that the people would see in due course of time that the interest of the khilonjiya and bhoomiputra of the state were protected.

Sonowal complained that a campaign was on to give an impression that he and his government was working against the interest of the indigenous people and that the indigenous communities of the state were being pushed to the brink by the present government which had in 2016 won the hearts of the same people through the promise of protecting jaati, maati and bheti. But then, while Sonowal kept hammering on Clause 6 of the Assam Accord and appealed to the members of the Expert Committee – all of whom barring the state Advocate-General have already resigned – to cooperate with the government and come up with strong recommendations on protecting the indigenous people. But he remained silent as far as the basic apprehension of the people is concerned – the apprehension that granting Indian citizenship to Bengali-speaking Hindus would reduce the Assamese and other indigenous communities of the state to a minority in their own land. Sonowal carefully refrained from directly talking about Muslim immigrants as his deputy Himanta Biswa Sarma has done in the recent few days. But then he did ask why the Congress was silent when he indigenous communities were reduced to a minority in as many as 11 districts of the state in the Census report of 2011.

Sonowal however did well to point out, during his speech at Nagaon, that the Congress was the sole culprit responsible for the demographic invasion that Assam has been witnessing in the post-Independence era, more particularly in the post-Bangladesh era. It is true that the Congress governments of Indira Gandhi at the Centre and that of Sarat Chandra Sinha in the state had miserably failed to ensure that the refugees of East Pakistan and/or Bangladesh returned to their homeland after Bangladesh was created. It is true that the Congress of Indira Gandhi, DK Barooah, Sarat Chandra Sinha, Hiteswar Saikia and Tarun Gogoi had always depended on the ‘Ali-Coolie-Bangali’ voter combination to win elections. While the ‘Coolie’ that DK Barooah meant were the tea labourers who had come from the heartland of India and made Assam their home by becoming an inseparable part of the larger multi-ethnic and pluralistic Assamese community, the ‘Ali’ and ‘Bangali’ were definitely the infiltrators from East Pakistan and Bangladesh. But then it is this same ‘Bangali’ – the Hindu Bengali refugees and infiltrators – who the BJP governments want to provide Indian citizenship at the expense of the Assames and other indigenous communities of the state.

Sonowal is right when he said at Nagaon that the Congress and the Jamiat and the Left parties were always in favour of retaining the notorious IMDT Act which was enacted solely to protect the infiltrators by Indira Gandhi after an election was forced upon Assam in February 1983 that had made Hiteswar Saikia the chief minister. The Congress, Jamiat – the latter also having direct links with the AIUDF of Maulana Badruddin Ajmal – had in fact petitioned before the Supreme Court to retain the IMDT Act. Likewise, it is also a fact that several of the prominent intellectuals who are now leaders of the present agitation against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill – barring the AASU, AGP and AJYCP – were opposed to the AASU-led movement against illegal migrants in 1979-85. It is also true that most of these leaders, barring the AASU and AGP, are silent on the Muslim infiltrators for the simple reason that many of them had a few months back attended a meeting in the national capital and shared the dias with Maulana Madani, a prominent Muslim cleric of India who is vehemently opposed to detecting the Muslims who had illegally entered Assam from East Pakistan and Bangladesh.

But then, while the majority people of Assam, whether in the cities or in interior villages, know that many of the intellectuals currently in the forefront of the anti-CAB agitation had openly opposed and criticized the AASU movement of 1979-85, most people across the state are also not convinced at what chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal has said in the Nagaon Bhogali Bihu function. Sonowal may have spoken at the top o his voice that he would fight till the last in the interest of the jaati, maati and bheti of the khilonjiya and bhoomiputra of Assam. But then his speech was not as convincing as it should have been, given the backdrop that the people of Assam – including the AASU – had only a few years ago hailed him as ‘jatiya nayak’ for having fought for scrapping of the controversial IMDT Act. The majority people of the state may not bother whether those people who had opposed the AASU movement and had denied infiltration were convinced or not. But then, majority people of the state are concerned their darling ‘jatiya nayak’ has not been able to convince the majority people and more particularly the leaders of the All Assam Student’s Union. The majority people would probably love to see a one-on-one debate on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill between chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and AASU chief advisor Samujjal Bhattacharjya. Because, the majority people were not convinced at what Sonowal spoke in Nagaon. And this, despite the fact that Sonowal has said — ‘’ “As a son of the soil, I would like to assure everybody that there is no need of being apprehensive in Assam.”

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