A problem once ‘resolved’ raised again 27 years later

Weeks after large-scale violence broke out in Kokrajhar and adjoining districts of Assam, various parts of the state have begun witnessing a revival of the movement against Bangladeshi infiltration, a problem that was supposed to have been resolved in 1985 with the signing of the Assam Accord. The Bodo leadership has blamed infiltration as the root cause of the current violence.

Various organisations have been bringing out rallies demanding detection and deportation of Bangladeshi infiltrators, prompting the government to issue an appeal asking groups to refrain, for at least one month, from any rally or programme that might contribute towards destroying the state's social fabric.

The past couple of weeks have seen rallies in Jorhat, Sivasagar, Dibrugarh, Lakhimpur, Nagaon, Guwahati, Naharkatiya, Golaghat, Sonari and various other towns. Some have been organised by parties such as the AGP and the BJP, and some by student unions AASU and the AJYCP. In Jorhat and Nagaon, senior citizens, college teachers and others joined hands with these groups.

Thursday had seen a massive rally by the North-East Students' Organisation in Guwahati. On Friday, Meghalaya Governor Ranjit Shekhar Mooshahary came out in support of the oust-Bangladeshi agitation. And on Sunday, 50 organisations brought out a joint rally in Kokrajhar.

"Yes, the Kokrajhar incidents have brought to the fore the shape of things to come due to unabated influx of people from Bangladesh. What is happening to the Bodo community within the Bodoland districts is going to happen to the entire Indian population of Assam soon if influx is not stopped and the immigrants not thrown out," asserts AASU adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya.

It was the AASU, then headed by Prafulla Mahanta, that had signed the 1985 Assam Accord with the government in presence of prime minister Rajiv Gandhi. It has been complaining of non-implementation of the vital clauses that pertain to detection and deportation. "Twenty-seven years is not a joke. And, if the government could erect a foolproof fence along the Pakistan border in record time, what prevented it from doing the same on the Bangla border is inexplicable," says Bhattacharyya.

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