Assam simmers as old wounds reopen
In contrast, in the Bengalidominated Barak Valley, rallies were taken out to hail CAA. Many in the Barak, comprising the three districts of Hailakandi, Cachar and Karimganj, feel they were unfairly excluded from the recently concluded National Register of Citizens (NRC), and the CAA gives them a way out.
The amendments are especially targeted towards people such as Ajit Das, a resident of Amraghat village in Cachar.
His family fled communal riots in then East Pakistan in 1956 and were issued refugee certificates – but these were not accepted by NRC authorities. Last year, a foreigners’ tribunal declared Ajit Das a foreigner and he spent three months in a detention camp. “We have heard that once the bill is passed, there will be no cases against Bengali Hindus,” said Sumanta Das, his brother-in-law.
Pramod Bodo, who heads the All Bodo Students’ Union, said the exemptions were not practically enforceable on the ground. “There is already a population of migrants in Bodo area. Nowhere it’s written that they will be deported or their names will be deleted from electoral rolls. The exemption is only on paper,” he said. Bodos are the largest tribe in the state.
At every big protest, leaders of the movement have stressed that “infiltrators” have no religion, and that they were not against any faith. “Through these protests, we are making networks with diverse communities across tribes, ethnicities and religion, who are all feeling oppressed,” said Moral.
POLITICAL BLAME GAME
Shortly after protests erupted last week, curfew was clamped in five districts. GP Singh, an Assam-cadre IPS officer serving in the National Investigation Agency (NIA) was posted as ADG, law and order. “The government wanted to send a message that a tough cop is in charge,” said a senior state government official who asked not to be named.
Singh says at least 1,500 people were apprehended and 200 arrested. “Things are normal now,” he added.
But there is a concern about rising tensions between Assamese and Bengalis, admitted the senior official quoted above. “The government also suspects there is more to the protests than genuine anger,” he said.
State BJP chief Ranjeet Dass said the BJP’S 4.2-million-strong cadre in the state were given instructions to not get provoked. “Our workers were on the defensive and it helped us. Had they also been on the offensive, Assam would have burnt,” Dass said.
A Border Security Force personnel moved to Guwahati from Jammu & Kashmir said the scale of destruction in Guwahati surprised him. “Destruction to public property is more here. It wasn’t anywhere close to this in Kashmir when Article 370 was scrapped,” he added.
The protests have signed the ruling BJP-ASOM Gana Parishad (AGP) coalition with a number of leaders from the alliance quitting or signalling their opposition to the CAA. In almost every protest, hundreds chant slogans against chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal and finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
The BJP blames these attacks on the Congress and “miscreants”. “Congress people have made the situation worse in upper Assam, and are spreading the wrong message,” said Ranjeet Dass, state BJP chief.
The Congress rubbished the allegations. “The state government failed to foresee and that is a failure of the state’s intelligence machinery,” said former chief minister Tarun Gogoi.
A second senior government official said Sonowal – himself a former AASU chief — had a fair idea that the protestors would hit the streets. “I wouldn’t say we were caught napping. But we didn’t anticipate the scale,” the official said, admitting there is genuine anger.
There is widespread agreement that the AGP, which swept to power in 1985 on the back of the Assam Accord but which is facing brickbats for initially backing the CAA, is in poor shape. “The party is fragmented, there is not a lot of resources and its grassroots support is weakening,” said Dutta. In the face of the anger, the AGP has now said it may go to the Supreme Court against the new law.
It is unclear whether a new grassroots formation will take its place because the AASU and Akhil Gogoi’s Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (who are heading the protests) have both historically stayed away from electoral politics. More importantly, experts say the electoral impact of the protests is difficult to gauge.
There are three possible reasons for this. The first is that the BJP has consolidated its Bengali vote bank in Barak by including Hindus in CAA. The second is that the party has focused on welfare schemes and doles, especially targeting the tea tribes that form a sizeable chunk of the population. The third is the lack of an alternative because the Congress remains unpopular.
“Elections are never fought on a single issue. Grassroots dissent may not yield electoral dividend,” said Dutta. He pointed out, referring to data by the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, that 75% of those who voted for the BJP in 2019 – when it won eight of the 13 Lok Sabha seats – said they opposed CAB.
Baruah said the connection between protest politics and institutional politics was complicated. “The BJP’S victories in Assam and the north-east are mostly the result of transactional relationships, not ideological conversion. I expect these relationships to change or become fluid. You may have voted for the BJP and still be in the streets now,” he added.
COUNTING THE COST
As the movement against CAA takes a new turn, and AASU activists fan out into villages to mobilise support, some experts have argued that the protests must be seen in conjunction with NRC to understand the human toll. “CAA and NRC are both legitimate institutions of segregation, exclusion and discrimination. Their human costs will be borne by the minorities…assam, the only state which currently bears the aftermath of both the processes, has seen deep social divides being foregrounded. The social boundaries that were asleep for a while are now awake and we see re-drawing of rigid boundaries supplemented by hate,” said Suraj Gogoi, a doctoral student at the National University of Singapore.
Moushumi Begum has a new routine now. Every evening, the 24-year-old steps out of her home – located in a narrow lane in Guwahati’s Hatigaon – and walks 400m to the turn in the road where her brother, Sam Stafford, was shot. Locals have arranged bricks around a laminated photo of the boy, and people gather to light candles. In their home, Mamoni has insisted the photo used in the funeral be flanked by percussion instruments — the dhol, banjo and tabla —because Sam loved playing them. “They are still here, but he’s gone,” she said.