Assam........a raped land

Today I want to speak about something that is vey close to my heart.My homestate Assam is one of the most beautiful places in India.Today the future of Assam is at crossroads.To understand how this sorry state of affairs came about,we have to go back to the change of East Pakistan to Bangladesh.Assam is one of the Indian states bordering Bangladesh.Before the birth of Bangladesh,there was some illegal migration migration by minority hindus fleeing religious persecution in Islamic Pakistan.But it was insignificant.After the liberation of Bangladesh by India in 1971,the rate of immigration increased.This time the reasons were not religious but economic.At that time Assam was sparsely populated and heavily forested.So the aliens moved in, cutting down forests and taking up farming and fishing.

As the years rolled by the local people began to view the situation with increasing apprehension.Assamese society was a melting pot of many tribes,each with their own unique culture and coexisting peacefully for cenruries.There was no telling what the presence of increasing number of Bangladeshis,who had nothing in common with the local people would do a society which did not witness any communal riots during India's partition .There was no certainty that fifty years down the line,the locals would be swamped by aliens in their own land.And that sort of feeling is going to make everybody nervous.

At that time the main political party was the Congress(I).But there was no articulate Assamese Congress workers-only a bunch of impotent toadies whose only aim in life was to grovel before Indira Gandhi.And one of them is (dis)credited with making the (in)famous comment "India is Indira and Indira is India".So these sychophants did not draw any attention to this acute problem.Gandhi also cared two hoots for small states like Assam which had only 14 Parliamenterians.In fact the Congress viewed the migrants as apliable vote bank.Their names were inserted in the voter rolls,giving them a status of Indian citizens.Its worst fears confirmed,the Assamese society launched a mass movement headed by students whose aim was to drive the illegals out.After six bloody years Rajiv Gandhi signed an accord with the agitattiponists.But the promises wer never implemented.Politics and red tape,coupled with a stupid legislation valid only in Assam that made the onus of proving the nationality of the accused on the complainant hampered deportation.The Indian home minister admitted that there was about 20 million Bangladeshis in India and a significant chunk in Assam.

After a long process of convulted litigation,the Supreme Court struck down the offending piece of legislation,raising hopes that the deportation process would become easier.Some border districts were already Muslim majority and the rate of increase of population was more than the all India rate.This was an ominous pointer of things to come.Meanwhile the congress govt in Assam,clearly worried about its prospects in the upcoming elections some 10 months hence due to the possible disruption of its votebank looked to the central government,also led by the congress to help.And they obliged by amending the Citizenship Act 1955 so that the children of the illegal aliens who came till 2004 would be given citizenship.Effectively this meant that the cutoff date for the granting of citizenship which was 1971 as agreed on Assam Accord is now pushed to 2004,making a very serious problem more so.And this is likely to warm the cockles of the hearts of all congressmen in Assam.A special mention should also be made for Rockybul Hussain,the state home minister an allegedly an illegal migrant.He must surely be heaving sighs of relief .But there has to be change of course or the landscape of Assam will change forever.