NRC in Assam: BJP set to gain the maximum
Coming events cast their shadows before! If people’s mood is any indicator in Assam, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set to emerge the biggest beneficiary in the ongoing nationwide political tinderbox on the National Register of Citizens.
Though decision to update the NRC was taken during the UPA regime, sudden political outburst at the national level has strengthened the polarisation at the grassroots level.
The jibes of West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee that the exercise to update the NRC was aimed at dividing people and would lead to “bloodbath” and a “civil war” in the country has added fuel to the fire in Assam. This was more visible when very few people came out in support of Trinamul Congress MPs and MLAs while they were attempting to visit Bengali-dominated southern Assam’s Barrak
Valley. If police record has to be referred, no prominent leader from
Barrak Valley came to airport to meet the TMC leaders who were detained at the Silchar airport. Even Assam
Trinamul Congress
(TMC) president
Dwipen Pathak and two other party leaders resigned protesting against the remark of
Ms Banerjee.
The political observers are of the view that Ms Banerjee’s opposition to the NRC has not only polarised the people in favour of BJP but also deprived the Opposition Congress from taking credit for initiating the process of updating the NRC.
Though the Assam Congress retracted from opposing the NRC, their dithering stand on it has dented their image in the indigenous people.
It is significant that unrelenting influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh into Assam and the consequent perceptible change in the demographic pattern of the state has been a matter of concern.
In fact, the movement against illegal immigration stems from the indigenous population’s worries about being outnumbered by “outsiders”, and fear that demographic invasion would lead to the loss of culture, language and identity.
The fear of demographic invasion was such that it stirred a six-year-long Assam movement in 1979 which culminated in signing of the Assam Accord on August 14,1985 with the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi.
The core aspiration of the Assam Accord was that all foreigners who had entered Assam illegally on or after March 25, 1971, would be detected, their names deleted from the electoral rolls and then deported under the provisions of the Foreigners Act, 1946 and the Foreigners (Tribunals) Order, 1964. However, subsequent governments failed to translate the commitment of the Assam Accord on the ground, provoking frequent agitations in the state.
The demands to update the NRC of 1951 were first raised by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and Asom Gana Parishad more than three decades ago. The process got accelerated in 2009 after the Supreme Court decided to monitor the process of updating the NRC.