GUWAHATI: Though all the political parties in Assam may make the right sounds when it comes to the issue of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants living in the state, none it seems will bite the bullet. And with the Assembly elections expected early next year, no party can afford to ignore the illegal vote bank.
Recently, when the Assam government made a startling revelation in the Assembly that some 35,738 illegal Bangladeshi immigrants were absconding following their detection, the BJP raised a hue-and-cry and called for removal of an “old” Assam Accord Implementation Minister, Bhumidhar Barman.
“Since 1985, altogether 38,186 people were identified as illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. Of them, 2,448 have been expelled while 68 are lodged in the detention centres. The remaining 35,670 people are absconding and some of them may have died,” the octogenarian minister had told the Assembly.
Outside the House, the BJP went all-guns-blazing at the ruling Congress. “Why was an old man like him given such an important portfolio? Given his reply in the House, the government has no idea about these people. If they are absconding, FIRs against them should have been lodged,” BJP legislator Jadav Deka had told the media.
But the BJP too has done little to address the issue. The party performed well in Assam in the 2014 General Election by playing the “Bangladeshi” card. While campaigning, BJP’s PM candidate Narendra Modi had said if voted to power, BJP would drive out immigrants. “You can write it down. After May 16, these Bangladeshis better be prepared with their bags packed,” Modi had thundered at a rally.
However, the BJP has adopted double standards on the issue all along. It views the Bengali Muslims, who entered Assam from Bangladesh, as illegal immigrants but sees the Bengali Hindus as refugees. The party leaders say the Bengali Hindus migrated to India in the face of religious persecution in Bangladesh and they should be accorded refugee status. But various organisations in Assam insist illegal immigrants, irrespective of their faith, must go. If the BJP is soft on the Hindu immigrants, it is because of its growing influence among them.
The people in Assam are increasingly terrified of being outnumbered by the illegal immigrants. The influx has assumed alarming proportions and threatens to change the state’s demography. Politically, Muslims are virtual kingmakers in four parliamentary constituencies and in a majority in at least seven of the state’s 28 districts.
With Assembly polls drawing close, it remains to be seen what position different parties adopt on the issue. The BJP says it will not deviate from its stand and so does the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which was born out of a six-year-old anti-foreigners agitation. But few will perhaps dispute that the AGP has no base in areas where the Bengali Muslims are in a majority. And the BJP is influential only in pockets in these areas. Therefore, they do not have much to lose.
The Bengali-speaking Muslims have been the vote banks of the Congress until the emergence of the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF). Led by Lok Sabha MP and perfume baron, Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, the AIUDF has had a meteoric rise over the last few years. The party virtually decimated the AGP to emerge as the principal opposition. The AIUDF’s influence among the Bengali-speaking Muslims is huge and this is despite its anti-immigrants stand.
Though the Congress says the Bangladeshis have to go, it has done very little on the matter in the last 14 years in power. Its chance of retaining power would depend much on its performance in areas where Bengali Muslims have a sizeable population.
