The Dhola killings and after

Dhola, which was for the past sometime was in the news for a positive reason, – for the country’s longest 19-km Bhupen Hazarika Setu – last Thursday became the scene of a ghastly incident. Unidentified gunmen shot five innocent persons dead, triggering off a lot of tension and bitterness, especially with the victims belonging to a particular linguistic community. While the initial reaction obviously was to point the finger of suspicion at the Paresh Barua faction of the ULFA, the police have arrested two top leaders of another faction of the outfit that has been in a ‘ceasefire’ mode for several years now. The logic behind the arrest of these two leaders of that particular faction is simple – they have been making provocative statements over the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill as well as the alleged discrepancies in preparation of the National Register of Citizens. Going by the same logic, the police should have also arrested a prominent MLA of the BJP too, as also self-styled ‘leaders’ of a little-known organisation that has posed as saviour of a particular linguistic community. If media reports are to be believed, the latter had even issued threats of violence against members of another linguistic community.

But, even as the entire people of the state have condemned the dastardly killings, several things have emanated from the Dhola incident. The first and foremost is that it has its roots in the BJP-led government’s attempt to amend the Citizenship Act. The BJP has been, through this move, not only intending to grant citizenship to lakhs of Bangladeshi immigrants already in Assam who profess the Hindu faith, but also intending to facilitate arrival of lakhs of others from the neighbouring country on the pretext that Hindus and other minorities – in Bangladesh the non-Muslims are minorities – are being subjected to severe persecution and discrimination in that country. This attempt is being made in clear violation and disrespect to the Assam Accord of 1985, which is unambiguous on the fact that a foreigner/infiltrator is a foreigner/infiltrator irrespective of whether he or she is a Hindu, Muslim , Christian, Sikh or Jain by faith. This can be also interpreted as the BJP government’s blatant attempt to do away with the Assam Accord itself, according to which all those who had entered Assam from Bangladesh after March 24, 1971 are to be detected and deported.

The second important aspect is an attempt made by certain quarters to derail the very process of updation of the NRC. Many quarters do not want the NRC to be updated, because of the simple fact that it would clearly identify the illegal Bangladeshi migrants – irrespective of whether they are Hindus or Muslims – who have been used by different political parties as vote-banks. While it is clear that the AIUDF does not want the NRC to be completed because the party solely depends on the migrants – whether illegal, pre-1971 or post-1971, the Congress too does not want because it too thrives on the old DK Barooah concept of ‘Ali-Coolie-Bengali’ as its vote-bank. Now, the BJP is looking at becoming the saviour of the ‘Bengali’ portion of that same ‘Ali-Coolie-Bengali’ vote-bank. This puts the BJP at the same level or class as the Congress and the AIUDF.

Moreover, most political parties in India unofficially subscribe to the Chanakya concept of divide-and-rule. Thus, keeping the people divided on various lines – be it religious, linguistic, ethnic, upper-lower, hill-plain, Barak-Brahmaputra – is always one of the primary intentions of such political parties. Certain incidents that have happened since the BJP coming to power in Assam give clear indication of such attempts to keep the people divided. The Silapathar incident, the Nagaon incident, and now the Dhola incident – all are similar in nature, and look like having some invisible link or connection.

What is unfortunate is that while a section of political leaders has been indulging in cheap utterances that are provocative and sensational in nature, the government has failed to take action against them despite the existence of laws that debar people from making provocative statements. Simply by issuing a statement to the media that the government would take strong action against those making inflammatory utterances is not enough. A few persons, including the BJP MLA from Hojai, should have been in jail by now. But the government, for reasons known best only to it, has only chosen to apprehend two ULFA leaders. This in turn has only contributed towards turning these two ULFA leaders – drop-outs who were responsible for killing of a large number of innocent people in the past two or three decades – into heroes.

It is also unfortunate that a section of the media has chosen to carry all kinds of provocative and inflammatory utterances some irresponsible people and some people with vested interest make. Such irresponsible statements and those others made with vested interest only further vitiate the atmosphere by spreading tension, hatred and suspicion. Thus, the government, and more particularly chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, who, during his AASU days had taken the ULFA head-on, must act tough. The Assam Police chief too must act tough. It is very important to apprehend the real culprits and expose their real intentions. One should not be spared for the simple reason that one belongs to the ruling party. The Dhola incident must be made the last such incident.