2 years after stir, will CAA issue sway Assam polls?

GUWAHATI: With elections to the Assam assembly due next month, the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, or CAA — a controversial legislation that seeks to grant citizenship to religious minorities from Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014 — is in focus again.

Violent protests against CAA rocked the state in December 2019, killing five in police firing, and the clamour against the legislation led to the birth of two regional parties. While the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party-led coalition is downplaying CAA and its impact (the legislation is yet to be implemented), the opposition alliance led by the Congress is raking it up again.

Fear of

Outsiders

The genesis to the opposition to the legislation lies in indigenous communities in Assam being apprehensive of outsiders, especially those from

Bangladesh for over a century. This sentiment led to an agitation between 1979 and 1985, which claimed over 800 lives in police action and ended with signing of an accord that promised sealing of borders with Bangladesh and the deportation of illegal immigrants who entered after March 24, 1971. Successive governments failed to implement the accord and the illegal immigrants issue continued to simmer. Five years ago, when the BJP promised to deport all illegal Bangladeshis, it galvanised voters, and the party was able to come to power for the first time in alliance with Asom Gana Parishad and Bodoland Peoples Front.

So when the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) passed CAA in Parliament in December 2019, protests flared up across Assam, fearing that it would lead to the influx of more “outsiders”. Protesters said the CAA provisions were against the 1985 Assam Accord that assured an end to entry of illegal immigrants irrespective of their religious affiliations. Several indigenous associations contended that if CAA is implemented, it could lead to an influx of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and threaten local language, culture and land holdings.

New regional parties opposed to CAA

Though the protests against CAA died down after a few days, they resulted in formation of two regional parties. The All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Assam Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), two prominent student bodies that spearheaded the protests, formed Assam Jatiya Parishad. And another outfit, Raijor Dal, was launched by Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), a farmers’ rights body that also played a key role in the anti-CAA stir.

Claiming to be representatives of indigenous aspirations, the two parties have joined hands to form the third alternative for voters. “Once we come to power, our government will take a decision on non-implementation of CAA in Assam, pass a resolution in assembly on it and intensify protests to get the legislation scrapped in Parliament,” Raijor Dal’s working chief Bhasco De Saikia said on Tuesday, releasing their “vision document”. The alliance has a tie-up with Autonomous State Demand Committee for the seats in Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao.

Congress’s stand

The two new regional outfits are not alone in their opposition to CAA. The “grand alliance” of Congress and six other parties — All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), BPF, CPI, CPI-M, CPI-ML and newly formed Anchalik Gana Morcha (AGM) are also raising the legislation as a key poll issue.

The Congress’s stance on CAA was displayed loud and clear during party leader Rahul Gandhi’s first poll rally in the state last month. Gandhi said that CAA was the BJP’s attempt at dividing the people of Assam, and the Congress will not allow its implementation in Assam. The party has also announced plans to build a memorial on the antiCAA protests. “After we win the election, we will pass a law in the assembly that won’t allow the CAA to be implemented in Assam...,” Congress Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi said.

BJP unperturbed

The BJP and its allies, however, are confident (at least publicly) that CAA is a non-issue in this election, and the ruling coalition’s development and welfare schemes in the past five years will be enough to ensure another term. “Protests against CAA have lost relevance post Covid. Voters are not bothered about it now. They are more concerned about development. The Congress and other parties have failed to judge the sentiment of the public,” senior minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said recently.

THE GENESIS TO THE OPPOSITION TO THE CAA LIES IN INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES IN ASSAM BEING APPREHENSIVE OF OUTSIDERS FOR OVER A CENTURY

Limited impact

Experts say that the CAA issue will have limited impact on the polls. “CAA should and could have been an important poll issue in Assam. But the spontaneous protests against the legislation erupted like a volcano in December 2019 and petered out. Even the two political parties, Assam Jatiya Parishad and Raijor Dal .... failed to carry forward or sustain the issue,” said Alaka Sarmah, professor of political science at Gauhati University.

“The legislation may play on mind of a section of voters in urban areas..., but it won’t affect how people vote in the rural areas... as they are aloof or not aware enough about CAA. On the other hand, the welfare schemes of the present government targeting almost all sections could play a bigger role...”