National Interest or Communal Harmony? — A study of Assam, India.
“I always vote for Congress” — an answer I no longer receive from a typical Gen X. The point is not to bring the Indian National Congress in the limelight, but to bring out the increase of intellect in voting for the country and for the state. National Parties, which are not more than a handful in India, are now struggling with their ideological definitions (made for the nation) while dealing with different sections of this vast diversity. Their priorities often lead to clashes not just in the past but in present too. Let’s move a bit back in time to understand how cluttered this is and how much more it can be.
Indian politics came into existence even before we got independence. It was then the fight for the national interest and today it’s the fight for individual interest. Is it? Definitely it is. Post-independence, the states were formed majorly on the basis of linguistics and people believe it to be the best to protect their indigenous existence and rights. But what if, these rights seem to be in danger? Let us come closer to a northeastern state — Assam to understand what could this lead to.
Assam is not a new establishment; ancient texts tell us stories which dated back to the 9th century. Assamese are very proud of their culture and rich heritage, the formation of the state of Assam results from this. But Assamese were never alone in their region. Primarily because of the ambitions of the British, foreigners entered the state. Tea cultivations was a major interest of the British which no one can decline. The plantations needed a lot of labour and where to look for cheap and abundant labour — Bengal! From 1826 to 1945, a huge migration took place from both East and West Bengal, and Bengalis entered Assam as labourers. The first damage was done. Another immigration into Assam was at the time of Independence — 1947. Hindus from newly formed East Pakistan entered Assam, further increasing the non-indigenous population. This was further followed by the third phase of 1971 — Bangladesh formation which leads to more people, majorly Hindus, crossing borders to enter the state. This was also followed by immigrating Muslims from the neighbouring country in search of more opportunities. The points which should be considered are that these immigrations didn’t take place officially and political parties make no remark on its legality because of their own interests which will be going to discuss.
India faced its “dark emergency days” from 1975 to 1977 which as followed by a failed government of Janta Party which lasted for 2 years till 1979. During this period, this was the time for the election in Assam and the year was — 1978. The eligible voters’ list saw a huge hike of about 35% since the last elections. The local indigenous people of Assam took no time to realise that 35% is a huge number which cannot be due to the natural rise. It was because of the increasing immigration from the neighbours — directly pointing to Bangladesh. And this started a long period of struggle called the Assam Movement of the 1980s.
The only demand for the Assamese was to remove infiltrator and then have elections. Infiltrator is someone who is not an Indigenous Assamese. I am an Indian, not from Assam, make me one of the infiltrators too. Assamese wanted to protect their ethnic identity and had their political concerns. I am using the word “Indigenous” again and again because it is the fight for the Indigenous people in Assam. At that time there was only one National Party — Indian National Congress, which even today have their ideology of Secularism. By following Secularism, how can you take the infiltrators out for one specific group and expect to win at the national level? The parties held elections without listening to the demands of the indigenous people and failed 5 times in forming a stable government. Assam faced President rule for the 4 times in just 5 years. Political Parties had their own concerns, which didn’t enable them to work for the Assamese by keeping their national agenda behind. It was when the movement took pace in 1983, AASU (All Assam Students Union) led movement did not allow the elections of the February 1983. It wasn’t that simple a full massacre took place in Nellie along with 13 other villages — known as the Nellie Massacre. 2,000 people died officially and 10,000 people according to the unofficial reports. A great number of Muslim populations was attacked but this does not mean that only Muslims died. Reporters covering the incident reported Assamese Muslims targeting Bengali Muslims and Assamese Hindus targeting Bengali Hindus too. This is a clear fight for the “indigeneity”. ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) appeared as an organisation demanding full independence from India. There was a time in Assam when the state had 3 governments at a time — One from the Dispur (the Indian Political one), Second from the University and third by the ULFA. The political unwillingness to think for the Assam made the state suffer tensions like we recently see in Kashmir.
It took 6 years since the beginning of the movement to come up with a solution led by Rajiv Gandhi — The Assam Accord (Clause 6A). It wasn’t easy. How can a national political party leave its vote bank? Vote Bank in this case and every is only about the minorities. They wanted to protect the minority and brought the limit for citizenship to the year 1971. This meant that anyone entering before 1971 can register for citizenship and anyone after that will have to spend a 10 years term to apply to be a citizen. The AASU demanded the limit be set at 1965, but the national priority didn’t allow congress to agree. What their priorities were? à The minorities, the Muslim vote bank. Finally, a stable 5-year government was formed by AGP (Assam Gan Parishad) which included members of the movement.
Fast-forwarding to almost 4 decades, we now come to 2020. We recently saw an uprising in Assam which is for the BJP this time. There are 3 Crore people in Assam as per the data of 2020. There are many categories to divide the people — On the basis of religion, there are 62% Hindus and 35% Muslims. On the linguistic side, we have 13% tribals, Bengalis and Assamese. And finally, from the ethnic perspective, we have Assamese Hindus, Assamese Muslims, Bangladeshi Muslims and Hindus who speak and follow Assamese culture and the Bengali Hindus. In 2014, Justice Ranjan Gogoi ordered for the update in the Citizenship Register of Assam. Gogoi himself comes from Assam and understand the situation very well. The exercise took place in Jan 2018 which excluded about 60 Lakh people which was way too much. It happened again in July 2018 which excluded 40 Lakh people which was again too much according to government. The Supreme Court then intervened and in their supervision in 2019, finally 19 Lakh people were excluded from the National Register of Citizens (NRC). This register tells about the people of India who are its citizens not to be confused by NPR, which tells about the population irrespective of their citizenship.
The resulting NRC delisted about (unexpectedly for the BJP) 12 Lakh Hindus and 5 Lakh Muslims. Now the political prioritisation at a Nation Level intervenes. Bhartiya Janata Party taking the agenda of Nationalism and Ideology of Hindutva can never send such many Hindus back. This is where our point of argument again leads us to. National Level Political Priority conflicting with the ethnic coalitions and creating instability, in Assam this time. According to RSS (Rashtriya Swayam Seva Sangh), a social ally of the BJP, Hindus are the refugees and the Muslims are infiltrators of India. This result brought a disappointment in BJP. There is no way they can identify Indigenous people, there is no way they can declare immigrant Hindus of Assam as infiltrators. They tried to make their way out by the CAA — Citizenship Amendment Act. It was a bill when the protest in Assam being hence referred to CAB — Citizenship Amendment Bill. When we talk only about Assam, this bill allows those 12 Lakh Bengali Hindus to get citizenship. Where will these new Hindu Refugees go now? In the Brahmaputra Valley of Assam. This is a dead-end to the fight Assamese are fighting for their indigenous rights. Hence, we see protests going on in Assam. With an ambition of being a party of Hindus, BJP clearly went again the rights of the indigenous people in fear of upsetting Hindus at the national level. This not only affected Assam, other states from the northeast joint the movement. Tripura with 30% Indigenous tribes and 70% Bengali Hindus, Nagaland with 92% Tribal Christians and 8% Hindus, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh are also concerned about the future of their identity.
BJP wants NRC again, which is a big NO from the Supreme Court. Assam wants ILP (Inner Line Permit) which is dangerous for the North-eastern part of India as it may separate. The solution is simple, is to follow NRC and identify correct citizens. This is not possible for the Central ruling party of BJP which might cause a huge loss in the vote percentage. It’s the national priority of BJP which is affecting Assam and can affect other regions too.
This brings to the beginning of this write-up — the regional parties. Is this the third alternative for the people to protect their indigenous rights? We see parties performing well in regional politics like Aam Aadmi Party in Delhi, Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, but at a National Level, we need some National Party to lead the way. And when National Parties like BJP and Congress come in the picture, they often stick to their ideologies to stay in power. This rigidness in prioritising makes the regional communities suffer.
Maharashtra is an example where we recently saw Congress coming up with the Shiv Sena but that was for the survival. Shiv Sena, a Right-Wing Hindutva Party didn’t want to lose its vote bank to BJP, INC didn’t want to get themselves cornered from Maharashtra Politics and this made the oldest existing party INC to leave its secular ideology behind. Such exceptions only take place in crisis. A ruling central party will never move away from its priorities and think for one specific community.
After observing Bihar, we see how Nitish Kumar is BJP’s compulsion and not a choice. This made the Bihar BJP bring out an amendment to carry out the census the way it was done in the UPAs government. This was not because BJP thinks for the people of Bihar, but because Nitish Kumar knows how to remain in power. Such regional dominance allowed him to exert pressure on his ally BJP to build trust among the people of Bihar.
In my eyes, the solution is as simple as the first and previous paragraph. People are being more aware of the political agendas, ideologies and priorities. They also analyse what is important for them. When it’s for the centre, they vote for Congress and BJP because they know who can compete. When it’s for State, they give a chance to the regional parties because they know they will listen to them. Democracy’s boon allows everyone to vote like a birthright and democracy’s bane is to allow everyone to vote.
