http://globalpolitician.com/articledes.asp?ID=911&cid=6&sid=20
Exploitation in Northeastern India
Mohammad Zainal Abedin - 6/22/2005
A section of the Indians have been co ntinuously propagating that Bangladesh is providing shelter to the insurgents of the Northeastern India in general and the ULFA in particular.But Bangladesh repeatedly declared that there is no camp of Northeast insurgents in her soil. But some Indian columnists repeatedly and deliberately beat the same drum to make the
people in and outside India that Bangladesh designs to secede its Northeast region though Bangladesh rejected the allegations and even does not hesitate to nab the Northeast dwellers whenever they were found
in Bangladesh territory.
Bangladesh instantly arrested ULFA Secretary General Anup Chetia when it was learnt that the militant leader was staying in her soil. He was tried and punished according to the law of the land.On different occasion, Bangladesh nabbed several Indian
nationals hailing from Northeast whenever they tried to enter Bangladesh territory. On May 27, Bangladeshi law enforcers killed five and arrested three Indians, hailing from Northeast. The authorities considering the weapons and explosives recovered from them became sure that they were either illegal arms smugglers or agents of Indian secret services sent to carryout subversive designs or distribute those arms and explosives to their Bangladeshi agents.
On many occasions Bangladesh requested India to come and show physically the whereabouts of those camps or training centres mentioned in a list that India officiallyhanded over to Bangladesh. If there was even a single camp or hideout of ULFA or anyother insurgent outfit that operates in Northeast or any
other part of India, she would have accepted the offer gladly.
But India did not accept it as she knows that such allegation is false and they are merely tools of anti-Bangladesh campaign. This propaganda has a number of ulterior designs. Its immediate aim is to attain the access of Indian soldiers in Bangladesh under the name of so-called joint operation.
Once these soldiers enter the bordering areas Bangladesh, they might create new situation so that they can stay there fo an indefinite time. Gradually they will extend their presence in other parts of Bangladesh saying that extremists and anti-India elements have their hideouts in all the districts of the country.
The Indians frequently argue that the Bhutanese government agreed in joint
operation to crush the Northeast insurgents from her soil. But the case of Bangladesh is totally different from Bhutan. Bangladesh has a strong border security forces, BDRbesides a far stronger regular Army. The Bangladesh security forces are quite able to wipe out any outsider from her soil without Indian help, which Bhutan cannot.
Secondly, the intelligence agencies of Bangladesh are far stronger than Bhutan. So presence of any foreign insurgent or insurgent group is easily detected immediately. Bangladesh could nab all the Bangladeshi terrorists who are and were involved in subversive activities if India wouldn't have given them shelter in her soil.
Thirdly due to the differences of Northeast people with the Bangladeshis in respect of body-structure and appearance they could be easily identified. But it is difficult for
Bhutan and Myanmar to differentiate their people from their Northeast counterparts, as they all belong to the Mongoloid stock. Bangladesh repeatedly showed her sincerity by arresting, even killing, those Indian arms smugglers who entered Bangladesh.
But the sincerity of Bangladesh was not welcomed, rather it was branded as an eyewash to bury the reality. The Indians should have appreciated the success of the Bangladesh law enforcing agencies. But instead of doing that they explained in other way saying that Bangladesh did so to improve its image.
In one oh his articles columnist Anand Kumar says, "On the issue of Bangladeshi immigration ULFA says that it is against all foreigners that include Indians who have come from other parts of India. It knows this kind of condition would be difficult for the Indian state to meet." (http://saag.org/papers15/paper1418.html). Anand Kumar should know that some East Bengal -origin Muslims settled in Assam far before the creation of India in 1947 and they were brought there according to the policy of the then British government.
Moreover, the Muslims of today's Assam are the decedents of the
Ahom Muslims who were converted to Islam before and after the advent of Hazrat Shah Jalal in Sylhet. So the Muslims of Assam could not be ranked with those Indians who to make their fortune came from different states of India and settled in Assam.
Common people of Assam also
comprehend the difference between the Muslims and the Indian settlers from other Indian states, whom ULFA treats as foreigners. These Indians still send their money earned in the northeast to their respective states.
They also make their assets in those states. They still follow and love their own languages, cultures and traditions. They do not consider Assam as their motherland. These Indians from Bihar, Punjab, UP and West Bengal do not oppose the exploitations and deprivations of the Indian government in Assam or other parts of the northeast region.
Rather these neo-settlers rather collaborate to prpetuate the colonial designs of India in the region. One can see the
nature of exploitation in Assam as depicted in ULFA's literature: "Assam has been deprived of any real benefit from these establishments till now. The railway became the one of the convenient communication systems of colonial exploitation and the industries became the medium of the outsiders for extracting the surplus value. The degree of exploitation increased day by day as the raw materials from Assam were taken away and industries were established. On the other hand, Assam was turned into the captive market of industrial products of the colonial master and the local capital was taken away by the foreign merchants. It should be mentioned here that only for their convenience of colonial exploitation the British did not do anything to undermine the feudal society of Assam. The "Land and Revenue" system was brought into use after the abolition of the old PAIK and KHEL system. And so they planted their perverted capitalism on the back of feudal system. For the interest of winning the loyalty of the subjects, a part of the old middle class was absorbed in the colonial administration, as they were given the Western education. The educated persons were appointed as Magistrate, Munchef, Daroga(Police officer) and clerks etc.
in the urban area and as Mauzader (revenue collector), Choudhury (revenue collector), Village Headman and Mandal etc. in the rural area. They became the faithful agents of the British and stood as the basis of the old Assamese society. The new Assamese middle class emerged in this way from the ruin of the old middle class.
The British also kept their sharp attention to this new Assamese middle class in
retaining their social dignity because they believed them to be the sole governor of British colonial administration".
"Assam was unfortunately annexed to India because of the trickery and conspiracy of the Congress, the British sponsored association of the "Indian elite". The exploitation, oppression and the looting of wealth remain undeterred today as before.
The only difference is that, previously the colonial exploitation was manipulated by the British imperialists
directly but now Assam comes under direct Indian colonial exploitation and on the other hand under the indirect International Monopolistic entrepreneurs as an alliance of Indian big business. The identity of the indigenous peoples of Assam is now threatened because of these double layered exploitations. On the other hand, the Indian government has arranged to form the powerless Assam government with the help of some puppets under the Indian constitution having a governor directly
appointed by New Delhi. Elimination of all the basic rights with the help of the direct governing system of Delhi, the Indian government has made their way clear".
"However, it makes a new social base loyal to the colonial India crushing the demographic structure of the nation-tribes. It is the manifestation of the
previous social base established by the British. This servant or sycophant class is helping the caretaker government of India stationed at Gauhati making a favorable environment for administration and exploitation by the slogans like "united India" , "India is our mainstream", "we are all Indians" who are totally unsympathetic to the rights, honour and the identity of the indigenous peoples of Assam. This puppet class is creating the environment of hatred, differences and conflicts among the indigenous nation-tribes.
This class is more brutal than the British in suppressing the legitimate struggle of the indigenous peoples, the democratic non-violent movement organized with the of hope of emancipation of the peoples of Assam who have been pauperised and deprived of their basic rights in their own Motherland. Therefore, the indigenous peoples of Assam under 51 years of Indian colonial rule have been tasting the bitter experiences of brutal repression upon unarmed movement. Now Assam and the whole of so-called North-Eastern region is subjected to the colonial system of Indian ruling class through their repressive administration behind the veil of fake
democracy. They are conducting their cultural, economic and political repression under the cover of Indian constitution.
With these rules and systems, the Indian government has closed all the
doors to the solution of "Nation Problem of Assam" establishing the right of self-determination of the indigenous peoples of Assam. That means the right of national self-determination is not recognized in the Indian constitution".
"In addition, in 1962 the Government of India almost handed over Assam to China. On 21-11-1962 all the Indian soldiers left Assam. Jawaharlal Nehru said farewell to Assam (by his famous speech "My heart goes out to the people of Assam"). Even, at that time the "conducive pipes" of Burma Oil Company were lifted away to West Bengali, Bihari and Marwari peoples from Assam. Moreover, the indigenous peoples of Assam stayed here
contemplating their destiny. After that, is there any legal right of India to rule Assam? However, shamelessly India again established their colonial rule after China declared unilateral ceasefire without encroaching on Assam. India once again re-established its colonial rule in Assam and resumed their colonial economic exploitation of
Assam. And till today, the act of looting, and plundering of wealth of Assam is going on".
"The nature of the exploitation is:
1. Till now the wealth of Assam are taken away as raw materials specially to the industries situated in the port-city like
Calcutta, Mumbai, Chennai, etc.
2. By taking away the finished products of the industry of Assam which were established as an obligatory measure, India is usurping all the foreign exchange?
3. India is resolving their unemployment problem establishing more industry in India by using the raw materials of Assam.
4. India has been appointing more Indian people in the
industries of Assam than the British.
5. More enterprises from outside are established in the industrial estates of Assam.
6. The banks situated in Assam are encouraging these entrepreneurs providing more financial help.
7. The appointment of Indians at every post from Manager
to get-keeper in all the government and semi-government industrial institutions deprive the local educated, semi-educated and uneducated unemployed youth from employment and so the unemployment problem of Assam has now become acute.
8. In the name of acquisition of land for industry and military bases, the government has evicted indigenous peasants from their hereditary land that has reduced them to street-beggars. Therefore, the evicted land less peasants and the problem of unemployed youth have made the 'national problem' of Assam more critical".
"On the other hand, the corrupted officers and contractors are misappropriating all the money poured for public welfare against the privilege to be granted to the peasants by controlling the river and tributaries of Assam through flood control system. So the problem of flood remains as before. Every year the flood plunges Assam and destroys innumerable quantity of lives and property.
India is earning thousands of millions of foreign exchange from the petro-products of Assam, however Assam receives only a nominal royalty. In addition, India is wasting our source of power by burning out the invaluable natural gas erupted with the crude oil, which is worth 0.1 million dollar per day other than utilising through proper technical support.
The government of India is granting pathetically a few numbers of licenses required for establishment of any industry here. And lastly the government of India has given license to the multinational corporations to establish industry in Assam independently, to take away the finished products, to bring technical expert from outside and above all to take away all the surplus
money that are turned over from the profit of the industry. Is there any other proof required to show the indirect colonial exploitation?"
"These peoples are being used in parliamentary elections as vote banks to deprive the indigenous peoples from their representation in the politics of
vote-war. The latest examples are Mr. Manomohan Singh from Punjab(Prime minister), Mr. Matang Singh from Bihar (former minister), Mr. Siv Sambhu Ozha from Bihar (former minister) etc. The conceited Indian state has imposed forcefully the expansionist Hindi culture upon Assam and the whole so-called North-Eastern region with the help of government and religious fundamentalist institutions. The
route to the development of different colourful tradition and culture of backward nation-tribes were completely closed by utterly neglecting them. For this purpose Radio, TV, Porno Hindi Film, Porno literatures are used everywhere. Now India is executing the idea of genocide in Assam as they have donein Kashmir"(http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Congress/7434/history.htm).
On the other hand, the Muslims consider them as Ahoms and use their money inside Assam. They are the active builders of Assam, as they think that they have no other abode in the universe other than Assam. So
the differences between the Muslims and the north Indian settlers in Assam are prominently visible and easily understandable. For this reason the Muslims are eyesores of the Indian government and these outsiders.
Theruling class deliberately leave no stone unturned to launch media campaign to create animosity between the original Ahoms and the Muslims and raise anti-Muslim sentiment in Assam. The ULFA treats India as a colonial occupation power in Assam and declared all the Indians as outsiders or foreigners. But the ruling class in New Delhi blame the Muslims and brand them as foreigners or outsiders. New Delhi's version of 'foreigners' is not accepted by ULFA or the people of this region.
Anand Kumar and his associates propagate that ULFA does to sit in a negotiating table to end insurgency in the state mainly to maintain its so-called business in Bangladesh. Anand Kumar says, "India on June 3 unveiled a list of hotels and other assets allegedly owned by the ULFA in Bangladesh. The Border Security Force's top official in the Northeast, S.C. Shrivastava disclosed that ULFA leaders based in Bangladesh were managing as many as seven hotels of "international standard." Besides, they also owned some nursing homes. He alleged that the militant group owned Surma International, Hotel Mohammadia and Padma International in Dhaka, Keya International and Hotel Yamuna in Sylhet and Hotel
Basundhara and Hotel Raj King in Chittagong. He said the managers of these hotels were ULFA militants who operated under aliases such as Ahmed, Kamal Hossain, Saidul, Shoal, Humayun and Rubel",ibid. Bangladesh officially denounced the imaginary allegation about the existence of such business owned or run by ULFA. Even an English Daily of Dhaka, The Daily Star, known as a soft daily to India, launched an independent investigation using its correspondents of Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet to identify and locate the existence of such hotels.
Bangladeshi investigators and The Daily Star correspondents in Dhaka, Chittagong and Sylhet could not unearth the existence such hotels or banks accounts or clinics. Now Bangladesh should invite international watchdogs to visit those cities where the alleged hotels or clinics are situated. They should also check all the alleged accounts of those banks like Arab Bangladesh Bank's Zinda Bazaar branch in Sylhet (account number 025401/08), the same bank's Farm Gate branch in Dhaka (account number 5266709/15) and Al-Barakah Bank's Pahartali branch in Chittagong (account number 09/229472), to see whether there are
such accounts run by any person as claimed by BSF official are genuine or not.
Bangladesh have been repeatedly inviting India to visit those places, where the alleged ULFA training centres or camps are located. But India did not accept those invitation as they know the
allegations are made to create anti-Bangladesh sentiment in home and abroad.
Bangladesh should now ask UN and other international forums to form an international committee, which should also include the Indians to investigate the Indian allegations.
Anand Kumar said," The question which now arises is why ULFA is so reluctant to come to the negotiating table." Then Anand Kumar himself answered, "The answer probably lies in the business interests that ULFA has developed in Bangladesh during the course of insurgency in the state." This argument is totally baseless. The main reason of ULFA's reluctance to sit in a negotiating table is very clear and the Indians also know it. Anand Kumar also mentioned it in the outset of his article saying, " To start negotiations, ULFA has kept conditions, which most people know would be difficult for New Delhi to accept. It wants to discuss the issue of sovereignty, which everybody knows cannot be discussed beyond a point",ibid. Why should the Indians blame Bangladesh for their own problem?
Let the Indian columnists have their sense and logic. Let them comprehend the reality in Assam and other states of the Northeast. They should better honour people's sentiment and find out an amicable and permanent solution and peace in the region.
Readers may find the following report informative as well.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=2&theme=&usrsess=1&id=80707
Dhaka denial
KOLKATA, June 22. Bangladeshs outgoing deputy high commissioner in Kolkata Mr Tauhid Hussain denied existence of training camps for Indian insurgents in his country. He called on chief minister Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the Writers this afternoon. SNS
.
