It seems this B'deshi menace has become monstorous, and no salvation seems to be in sight.
Sinister Developments The political developments in Assam (mainly relating to the large-scale illegal migration from Bangladesh) during the last few days have been most sinister to say the least. Going back a few weeks, we have had the dangerous stand of the Assam Government denying any ISI activity in the State on the floor of the Assembly, despite the fact that the same Assam Government was constrained to admit that there was ISI activity in and around Assam in an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court. That apart, there are other clear indicators to signal that the rapid demographic change in the population of Assam has been wrought entirely by the illegal migrants from Bangladesh. The latest confirmation of this fact comes from none other than the National Minorities Commission (NCM). The NCM had set up an expert committee of demographers to go into this issue, and on April 30 the NCM announced that the committee had found that the growth rate of Muslims in the border areas of Assam and West Bengal was disproportionately high, probably due to immigration from Bangladesh. However, the committee has also said that though the rate of growth of the Muslims in India was more than people of other religions between 1991 and 2001, it had declined over the years. We are at a loss to understand how the committee of experts was able to come to this conclusion (that the rate of increase of Muslims had declined) before another census operation. Thus it is only the Assam Government that continues to pretend that there is no illegal migration from Bangladesh into Assam at all. And now it has a supporter in none other than Union Minister for Defence Pranab Mukherjee. He told the Lok Sabha last Thursday that there was no spurt in the influx of Bangladeshis across the international border. One cannot help wondering if the Defence Minister was obliged to reply to such questions in the Lok Sabha merely because the credentials of the Home Ministry had been faulted on such matters. Be that as it may, the All Assam Students Union (AASU) has warned the Assam Government that the days of the 1980s will be back again if the tripartite talks in New Delhi on the implementation of the Assam Accord involving the Centre, the Assam Government and the AASU fail. This is ominous for more reasons than one. In the first place, while we are all convinced that the Assam Movement on the issue of illegal immigration of foreigners to Assam was a very legitimate and vital movement, it was badly handled to the extent that the AGP which was the creation of the AASU, did nothing at all to tackle the issue despite being elected with an overwhelming majority in 1985 and again in 1996. In fact, since 1991, it started craving for the same illegal vote-bank of Bangladeshis that the Congress had built up. Besides, if the Assam Movement gave rise to the AGP, it was also responsible for the emergence of the ULFA and the total destruction of Assam's economy and education. Further, it ushered in the bandh culture of Assam. As for the Assam Accord itself, it was the AGP government that totally sidelined the document and turned it into a dead document. Successive governments of Assam have just toyed with the peripheral clauses of the Accord and skirted around the crucial Clauses 5.1 to 5.9 relating to foreign nationals. Obviously no one wants a re-enactment of what happened between 1979 and 1985. Nor do they want the spawning of yet another political party like the AGP or a militant outfit like the ULFA. The most frightening developments, however, are that the Assam Government should be preparing to provide permanent settlement for about 4,000 Bangladeshi families in Bilasipara and the report in the London-based Jane's Islamic Affairs Analyist magazine about Bangladesh emerging as a haven for Islamic militants. Considering the authenticity of information on military matters provided by Jane's Weekly on which the whole world has depended for decades, there is no reason to distrust the veracity of the report in the Analyist that Islamic militancy has increased in Bangladesh ever since the crackdown on fundamentalist Islamic groups in Afghanistan and Pakistan. There are now more than 30 fundamentalist militant groups in Bangladesh, and they are targeting non-Muslims, leftists and liberal intellectuals for "standing in the way of the establishment of a greater Islamic nation that includes parts of some adjacent Indian States." The article also described Bangladesh as "a cocoon of terrorism and violence". In the forefront of these organizations is the Jagrata Muslim Janata party, a violent vigilante organization, that achieved notoriety in 2004 for attacks on leftist groups. At a time when the elected representatives of the Congress party of Assam have decided to align themselves with such organizations, the people of the State must have no illusions about their intentions or their resolve to write off the land of their birth to such fundamentalist outfits. _______________________________________________ Assam mailing list [email protected] http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/listinfo/assam Mailing list FAQ: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/assam/assam-faq.html To unsubscribe or change options: http://pikespeak.uccs.edu/mailman/options/assam
