Raju Korti
Looking back in time can be of great academic interest especially when they have their roots in the present. The much trumpeted Assam accord is another in the line of festering political issues that has traveled 33 years with no tangible result in sight. The country has a history of issues that have opened a bigger Pandora's box after they were believed to have been amicably resolved.
On 14th August, 1985, I was Shift In-charge of Page One of the Indian Express. The air was thick with anticipation not for the customary and regulation speeches of the prime minister and the president but for the much awaited holiday from the routine skulduggery that journalists are condemned to every day. Even in that glee, all my colleagues with me were having an animated discussion about the possible accord that then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was likely to sign with the All Assam Students Union (AASU) on the issue of illegal migrants infiltrating Assam. Hailed as a great visionary who held the promise of transforming the political ethos of the country, Rajiv was actually cornered by outfits to shoo out the infiltrators back to Bangladesh and Myanmar. The agitation was spearheaded by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta of Assam Gana Parishad , a 35 plus youth leader who became the chief minister on that plank.
The accord was signed the next day to a rousing welcome across all political parties, but some of us were not fooled given Congress' ecosystem of keeping sensitive political issues alive in public memory. The story was carried as a banner by the print media and it didn't occur to many to assess the ramifications of the agreement before letting their verdicts out. In all the glee, Kashmir, Punjab and Sri Lanka faded out of scene for a while.
The parties to the accord had agreed on 1st January 1966 as the cut off date for detecting and deleting foreigners coming to Assam from a "specified territory" (read Bangladesh and Myanmar) who had been staying in India without legal citizenship. The Assamese anguish stemmed from their rights being eaten up by the infiltrators. The Foreigners Act, 1946 was invoked to carry out the process which among other things sought to delete those whose names had made it to the electoral rolls.
For all the credit he got, Rajiv had actually carried forward Indira's style of handling internal conflicts like Kashmir, Khalistan and Tamils. Rajiv signed the accord but never chose to implement it. This was a no brainer in a country where political expediencies are guided by vote bank politics. His successors P V Narasinha Rao was too busy with his pet theme of liberalization and Manmohan Singh didn't have the gumption to defy the Gandhis. For reasons that are not far to seek, the Left-centric Congress never broached the issue with Bangladesh. The problem was compounded by the Assamese tribals who felt slighted because they were convinced they were the original inhabitants and didn't want to be even considered in the exercise.
On the gas for long, the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) has now come to a boil. Mamata Banerjee is understandably peeved at losing a potential vote bank and is opposing tooth and nail. The perception that the NRC aims at driving Bengalis out is misplaced since there are also Assamese who do not figure in it. If the draft list is causing such heart-burn, one can only imagine what will happen when the NRC goes on the hammer. Little wonder, the threat of bloodshed and civil war.
What needs to be understood is these foreigners are stateless people who have no right to use the resources and opportunities that belong to the indigenous Assamese. The remarkable rise in the population of that state is testimony to the degree of infiltration. Very few countries are receptive to the idea of accepting refugees and illegal population for obvious reasons but India has a heart of gold. In 1971, India welcomed with open arms refugees from the strife-torn Bangladesh. There is no clear word how many went back and how many made India their permanent abode. The country was magnanimous enough to pay Refugee Tax for their sake.
There is also an issue beyond the NRC. Even if the population of Assam cuts to size, what happens to the filtered 20 lakh people. New Delhi should engage with Bangladesh government to ensure that Assam does not take a leaf out of Kashmir with illegal migrants becoming majority population. It suits Bangladesh to see their population dwindling when that country is grappling with problems of plenty.
The resource-deficit Assam does not have economies of scale to match and its extremely porous borders is adding insult to injury, but successive governments have never shown the spunk to tackle the problem head on. The country could well be sitting on another Nellie-type massacre.
Looking back in time can be of great academic interest especially when they have their roots in the present. The much trumpeted Assam accord is another in the line of festering political issues that has traveled 33 years with no tangible result in sight. The country has a history of issues that have opened a bigger Pandora's box after they were believed to have been amicably resolved.
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| Rajiv Gandhi signing the Assam accord |
The accord was signed the next day to a rousing welcome across all political parties, but some of us were not fooled given Congress' ecosystem of keeping sensitive political issues alive in public memory. The story was carried as a banner by the print media and it didn't occur to many to assess the ramifications of the agreement before letting their verdicts out. In all the glee, Kashmir, Punjab and Sri Lanka faded out of scene for a while.
The parties to the accord had agreed on 1st January 1966 as the cut off date for detecting and deleting foreigners coming to Assam from a "specified territory" (read Bangladesh and Myanmar) who had been staying in India without legal citizenship. The Assamese anguish stemmed from their rights being eaten up by the infiltrators. The Foreigners Act, 1946 was invoked to carry out the process which among other things sought to delete those whose names had made it to the electoral rolls.
For all the credit he got, Rajiv had actually carried forward Indira's style of handling internal conflicts like Kashmir, Khalistan and Tamils. Rajiv signed the accord but never chose to implement it. This was a no brainer in a country where political expediencies are guided by vote bank politics. His successors P V Narasinha Rao was too busy with his pet theme of liberalization and Manmohan Singh didn't have the gumption to defy the Gandhis. For reasons that are not far to seek, the Left-centric Congress never broached the issue with Bangladesh. The problem was compounded by the Assamese tribals who felt slighted because they were convinced they were the original inhabitants and didn't want to be even considered in the exercise.
On the gas for long, the issue of National Register of Citizens (NRC) has now come to a boil. Mamata Banerjee is understandably peeved at losing a potential vote bank and is opposing tooth and nail. The perception that the NRC aims at driving Bengalis out is misplaced since there are also Assamese who do not figure in it. If the draft list is causing such heart-burn, one can only imagine what will happen when the NRC goes on the hammer. Little wonder, the threat of bloodshed and civil war.
What needs to be understood is these foreigners are stateless people who have no right to use the resources and opportunities that belong to the indigenous Assamese. The remarkable rise in the population of that state is testimony to the degree of infiltration. Very few countries are receptive to the idea of accepting refugees and illegal population for obvious reasons but India has a heart of gold. In 1971, India welcomed with open arms refugees from the strife-torn Bangladesh. There is no clear word how many went back and how many made India their permanent abode. The country was magnanimous enough to pay Refugee Tax for their sake.
There is also an issue beyond the NRC. Even if the population of Assam cuts to size, what happens to the filtered 20 lakh people. New Delhi should engage with Bangladesh government to ensure that Assam does not take a leaf out of Kashmir with illegal migrants becoming majority population. It suits Bangladesh to see their population dwindling when that country is grappling with problems of plenty.
The resource-deficit Assam does not have economies of scale to match and its extremely porous borders is adding insult to injury, but successive governments have never shown the spunk to tackle the problem head on. The country could well be sitting on another Nellie-type massacre.
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