For many people in eastern India, Bangladeshi means Bengali. It indicates that everyone living in Bangladesh must be a Bengali. But in reality, Bangladesh is a tiny neighbouring nation with a secular identity comprising various ethnic tribes. The populous country is however dominated by Muslim population where almost everyone uses Bengali language.
The people of Assam somehow maintain a strained relationship with the Bengalis, even though some of the distinguished Bengali personalities have contributed in the growth of Assamese language and culture.
One can remember the immense contributions of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Ashutosh Mukherjee, Padmanath Bidyavinod, Bibhubhusan Choudhury, Arun Purkayastha, Arun Guha etc for Assam since time immemorial.
So when West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee publicly criticised the process of National Register of Citizens (NRC) updation in Assam, many Assamese intellectuals came out with the easy conclusion that Bengalis can never be a friend to the Assamese.
They thus knowingly or unknowingly disgraced the sizable Bengali speaking populace of Barak valley in the state.
Mamata on 3 January made a controversial statement that the NRC updating process in Assam was a ‘conspiracy to drive away Bengali people’ from the state. She also asked her party Parliamentarians to raise voice against the NRC in New Delhi. Later a public meeting was also organized in Kolkata to gather public support against the process.
Assam was updating the NRC under the direction and supervision of the Supreme Court and its first draft was published on the midnight of 31 December 2017.
The much-awaited updating of 1951 NRC comprised 1.9 crore people out of around 3.29 crore total applicants in the first draft. The process of updating began in 2013, which received 6.5 crore supporting documents comprising 68.27 lakh families residing in the state. The second and final part of the draft is expected to be published by this year.
Illegal Immigration And the Politics Around it
The influx of illegal Bangladeshi migrants remains a vital socio-political issue for Assam along with Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya and Manipur. With the emotion and the anxiety of turning minority in own lands, Assam movement erupted in 1980s and culminated with the agreement.
The development finally empowered Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), born out of the popular movement with the same leadership of AASU coming to power in the state for two separate terms, but shockingly the regional party leaders followed their predecessors and simply betrayed the people over the issue.
Now the AGP is an ally to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led government. Unlike the Congress or AGP regimes, the new government that came to power in May 2016 has taken the issue of influx little seriously.
The citizens have seemingly reposed faith over the authority on updating the NRC and hence contrary to the widespread apprehensions of unpleasant situation arising, no unwanted incidents were reported from the state.
The government authorities along with various political parties, civil society and advocacy group representatives and the media definitely deserve appreciations for their pragmatic roles in maintaining peace across the region after the release of the NRC draft, even though many people could not find their names in the list.
‘Why is Mamata Opposing the Centre’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016?’
Mamata Banerjee wanted to be a saviour of Bengali people and started commenting against the NRC Assam updation. But amazingly, she could not even convince the Bengali speaking people of Assam. They denounced her intention and clarified that the Trinamool Congress chief was never a guardian or spokesperson for the Bengali community.
They had a relevant question to her, if Mamata was so concerned about the fate of Bengali people, why had she been opposing the Centre’s Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016 that would grant citizenship to the persecuted religious minorities from Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh after due processes.
If the citizenship act is amended in the Parliament, hundred thousand Hindu Bengalis (with few other communities) would get Indian citizenships.
Sadou Asom Bangali Parishad, Bengali Students’ Federation of Assam etc denounced Mamata for her disrespectful comments against the apex court and the people of Assam. They stated loud and clear that the Bengali and Assamese people were living in Assam happily and ‘no outsiders should poke their noses into it’.
Meanwhile, politicians in power, social outfits, number of distinguished individuals of Assam came with critical comments against the Bengal chief minister.
They were unanimous in their views that Bengal chief minister was trying to communalize the process for the sake of vote bank politics.
At least three FIRs were lodged against the firebrand politician in Assam for her derogatory comments indirectly targeting the apex court.
The Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) appreciated that the Bengalis in Assam stood against TMC. It also supported the demand raised by few nationalist Bengali politicians including Dilip Ghosh to have NRC updating process in West Bengal as well to segregate the illegal Bangladeshis from the indigenous Bengalis.
(The author is a Guwahati-based journalist and media rights activist. This is a personal blog and the views expressed above are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for the same.)
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