As evictions continue, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma invokes Lachit Borphukan and Bir Chilarai. It was under the leadership of Borphukan that the armies of Oxom crushed the Mughals at Xoraighat, their 17th and last attempt to take Assam. Among Chilarai’s many military exploits, was the invasion of Sylhet, then under the rule of the Karrani dynasty of the Bengal Sultanate. “We have Borphukan and Chilarai’s blood in our veins. Borphukan went to the battlefield even when he was unwell. We too will fight…” Every Assamese, Sarma said, must be ready for war.
But lets first talk about the politics that led to this. As we watch Bharat script history in its fight against illegal Bangladeshis and Rohingyas, their systematic settlement in India that started it all is a result of gross political impropriety on the part of several very desperate political parties that sold this country out to somehow win elections through ‘vote-banks’ comprising what they called ‘minority’ communities, who, in turn, overran entire districts. The current unrest is the price we now pay for the deeds of the Congress party and its votebank electoral antics.
As their cup of shamelessly anti-national politics brims over, the nation has reacted and responded, across the board—from ordering evictions across wide swathes of land that were colonized, to deportation exercises, to the denotification of certain national identity documents, to ordering a recheck of electoral rolls in places where the number of votes cast exceeds the number of actual voters, to empowering deputy commissioners to decide who gets to stay in the country, and, more importantly, who does not.
To the surprise of those who were hellbent on conning the country by labelling the problem to be one of Assam and Assam alone, evictions are now happening in multiple states not just within the Northeast but in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi, the one place that had, especially during the time of the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party not just looked away from the illegal migrants issue but actually encouraged their settlements. Internationally, the opposition to the evictions is close to zero, a result of the silent jihad that entire continents are now being dragged through. Vested regional interests are now having to watch their voices drown in the national outcry against illegal migrants, forces that side with Pakistan during a war, threaten to take over the Northeast, and create unprecedented religious tension. In effect, there is now no difference between the pushback against radical Islamic crowds across Europe, for example, and what is happening in India.
It was a matter of time before this happened—only those who were responsible for creating the phenomenon decided that they would, whatever the cost to the nation, prevent the wrong from being corrected. Hence the visits by politicians who guarantee the Assam chief minister’s arrest should their party cpme to power, the harping on the ‘moral’ weight of evictions (but not the creation of religious votebanks) on the conscience of the Oxomiya, the pointing out of what they claim is ‘illegal’ in the entire eviction and pushback exercise (but not the creation of laws that made the usurping of India in the modern age possible)…
In a more localized context, the arrival of Gaurav Gogoi, son of former chief minister Tarun Gogoi from Delhi, resulted in what was only to be expected: the creation all over again of ethnic fault lines in the state’s political landscape, of groupings of people who go by certain surnames. As for the promises made by him and his leaders of the Congress ‘high command’ included reconstructing houses for encroachers whose illegal houses had been destroyed.
The question that weighs heavy on the minds of local indigenous communities is whether the land that has been cleared of encroachers will stay clear of encroachers. For one, the widespread fear of indigenous communities that saw their land usurped by illegals has dipped post evictions. Reports of their asking for eviction in other localities are rising. Additionally for the first time in history, and in a complete reversal of situations, compared to the days of the Congress, both government and most local organisations be it in the Brahmaputra valley or the Barak are for the first time on the same page and in agreement—that come what may, Bangladeshis have to go. With law enforcement now being used for the state’s people rather than against them as was the practice before, there is renewed awareness, energy and effectiveness in the drive against illegals.
The state government, for its part has done something that is unprecedented: declare that people in border areas that are suffering from unabated influx will be issued arms to protect their land and that of their communities from encroachers, whose pattern it has been to arrive in droves and take over land from those it belongs to, in weeks, sometimes even overnight.
As expected, both the proposed arming of people and the widespread eviction drives have atrracted flak from neighbouring states, one of which is expected to see a change in government should illegals not vote for a certain party. The situation is exactly that which Assam faced a few decades ago. The question that parties such as the Congress and other pro-illegals parties are not willing to answer is this: Why and how did the situation come to this? Truth is Assam and Uttar Pradesh and Bihar and Delhi are now undoing a terrifying situation that has been created by pro-Bangladeshi parties. The good news: that in a new India, the parties that stand with the country are determined to go the whole hog to dismantle Bangladeshi vote-bank politics in the country, no matter what it takes, be it disenfranchisement, deportation, even bifurcation of Bangladesh to resettle the illegals who came there.
For those whose political fortunes have come to depend on the Bangladeshi vote, they will in future have to earn their votes from Indians.