Bangladesh influx comes to the fore
GUWAHATI: The 2011 census data on religion has rekindled the fear of ‘demographic invasion’ in Assam. It has also given political parties their pet issue — influx of Bangladeshis — in a quantified package ahead of the 2016 assembly elections.
The percentage of Muslims in India went up marginally from 13.4% in 2001 to 14.2% in 2011. But Assam recorded the highest decadal increase of 3.3% — from 30.9% in 2001 to 34.2% in 2011.
Though Assam has a sizeable population of indigenous Assamese Muslims, the community has invariably been equated with Bangladeshis whose illegal entry is often blamed on poor border management.
The issue came into sharp focus during the Assam Agitation from 1979-1985 culminating in the signing of an accord for detection and deportation of illegal migrants.
“This (census data) is the official acknowledgement of our fear that the indigenous people in Assam would be wiped out by Bangladeshis. Less than 10 years ago, Assam’s electoral rolls had 40 lakh excess voters, and everyone knows who they are,” Abhijit Sarma, head of an NGO that champions the cause of indigenous peoples, said.
The ruling Congress said the data has been released deliberately ahead of assembly elections in Bihar, Assam and West Bengal — three states where Muslim population is on the higher side.
The BJP declined to comment but a senior leader said, “Figures arrived at after years of painstaking fieldwork do not lie.”