HINDU HEADACHE FOR BJP IN ASSAM
Tensions are running high in Assam after the March 6 ransacking of an All Assam Students Union (AASU) office in Silapathar, a town in the state’s Dhemaji district. Three people were reported injured in the attack, perpetrated by an obscure group, the Nikhil Bharat Bangali Udbastu Samanvay Samiti (NBBUS), seeking citizenship for Hindu refugees from Bangladesh. AASU led a six-year movement against illegal immigration into the state, resulting in the 1985 Assam Accord, which, broadly, granted citizenship rights only to those who had moved to the state before 1971.
AASU is deeply influential, with key players in the Assam government, including the chief minister, Sarbananda Sonowal, being former members or leaders. But, as a critic of all immigration to Assam from Bangladesh, whether Hindu or Muslim, it found itself in the crosshairs of NBBUS, allegedly associated with the RSS and virulently opposed to the idea of citizenship as outlined in the Accord. It is the association with the RSS that makes it so uncomfortable for the BJP-led NDA government. The BJP won 60 of the 89 assembly seats it contested last year, a commanding performance in a state in which 35 per cent of the population is Muslim.
Since the Sonowal government took oath on May 24 last year, it has been brazen about its ‘Hindu first’ agenda. State finance minister Himanta Biswa Sarma argued that the Citizenship Amendment Bill (2016), which seeks to naturalise (non-Muslim) minorities persecuted in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan, was necessary because Assamese people needed the support of their Hindu Bengali brothers to ward off the Muslim threat. In December, RSS volunteers sparked anger by shouting “Hindu-Hindu, bhai-bhai” and “Bharat mata ki jai” from the top of the 18th century Kareng Ghar, an Ahom palace and protected monument.
Earlier, Sarma, as education minister, ordered staterecognised madrassas to remain open on Fridays. “Madrassas are closed on
Sarma now says “practical difficulties” mean the Sanskrit order won’t be enforced
Fridays in Pakistan and Bangladesh, not in India,” he said. In February, CM Sonowal tweeted the government’s decision to make Sanskrit compulsory up to the 8th standard. Even ministers in his own cabinet sided with the Opposition in opposing the decision. Sarma now says “practical difficulties” mean the order will not be implemented. Sonowal, when contacted, insisted that “the decision [had] not yet been discarded”.
The mixed message is typical of a confused government, caught between its commitment to Hindutva and the priorities of the Assamese people.