FORMER Chief Minister of Assam, a powerful youth leader of yesteryears and presently leader of the Opposition in Assam Assembly Prafulla Kumar Mahanta expressed fears that if the influx of people from the neighbouring Bangladesh into Assam and other parts of north-east India as well as in other Indian states was not stopped forthwith, his State might follow the PoK way and become “Bangladesh-occupied Assam” in the near future. And his fears are not unfounded.
In an open interview conducted by Prakash Dubey, Editor of Dainik Bhaskar, at Sai Auditorium in Nagpur on 3-10-10 where the former Assam Chief Minister was accorded a public felicitation at the hands of senior NCP leader and Trustee of Vanrai, Girish Gandhi, Mahanta painted a very gloomy picture of his State vis-à-vis unabated infiltration from across the Bangladesh borders into Assam since past six decades. Giving example of his own Nagaon district, the former student leader, who spearheaded the famous Assam movement in the late seventies, said “in 1991 census Nagaon was a Hindu-majority district. In 2001 census it became a Muslim-majority one. This transformation did not cause because of the normal decadal increase in population but due to the unchecked influx of people from Bangladesh to that district has effected this change”, he said.
Nagaon is not the only district in Assam which has turned into a Muslim-majority district. There are six other districts in the Brahmaputra and Cachar Valleys which have been dominated by these Bangladeshi migrants who entered illegally into Assam. Not only this they are in a politically dominating position in almost one-third of the State’s 126 Assembly constituencies, Mohanta disclosed to the dismay of the jam-packed audience drawn from various social, political and educational fields of this premier central Indian city.
The Indo-Bangladesh border is grossly unprotected, porous and neglected since the days of independence. When the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and later Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) of which Mahanta was one of the founders, launched the movement against the large scale presence of illegal Bangladeshis in the State, the then West Bengal Chief Minister late Jyoti Basu rediculded it as “picnic”, Mahanta recalled, but the same Jyoti Basu later confessed to him that he was also facing the same problem from Bangaldesh in West Bengal.
When the AGP came to power in 1985 following Assam Accord during Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure as Prime Minister, the State government initiated steps to build roads along the border. But there were hurdles from the Bangladesh Rifles and the Government calling for intervention from the Government of India. Since then, the Centre has all along neglected the protection of borders with Bangladesh, Mahanta alleged and lamented that 24 precious years were lost in securing our borders and also in identifying and deporting the illegal foreigners to their country. This has put an extra burden on the economy of the State. Besides, infiltration is not a problem only limited to Assam and eastern states; they have now reached as far as Delhi and Mumbai, he added.
The Assamese leader echoed the sentiments of the people of his State when he blamed the Central Government for the inordinate and unpardonable procrastination in detection of such illegal foreigners; deletion of their names from the electoral rolls, and deportation to their country of origin. Some efforts were made during the tenure of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mahanta said adding further that thereafter no sincere efforts were made by the UPA Government in this direction.
He confessed that though the Assam Accord gave priority to these tasks related to identification of the illegal migrants, nothing tangible could be achieved due to the complicated IM (DT) Act of 1983, which now stands repealed by the Government. That act made the process more cumbersome and complicated, he said. The Government was not sincere to solve this problem right from the days of the late Indira Gandhi to Dr Manmohan Singh, he added.
When the attention was drawn to the fact that Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh represented Assam in the Rajya Sabha, the now seemingly matured politicians from the north-east wondered as to why Dr Singh was shy of facing the electorate directly and get elected to the Lok Sabha? The people of the State were disappointed as the Prime Minister had not done much to solve their woes, he added.
