By Inder Jit
(Released on 24 December 1985)
People’s power has again expressed itself decisively in Assam. The AASU, led ably and courageously by Mr Prafulla Mahanta and Mr Bhrigu Phukan, and the AAGSP, led by Mr Biraj Sharma and others, which spearheaded the agitation against the foreigners, have been voted to power in the Assembly poll in the shape of the newly-formed Asom Gana Parishad. I raised the matter at the national level in my column on December 4, 1979 entitled: Assam Is Not For Burning. I wrote: “People’s power has asserted itself magnificently in Assam… Most people outside Assam have little idea of all that has happened… About a fortnight ago, Assam witnessed for six days an unprecedented mass satyagraha… in the finest Gandhian tradition… Lakhs of Assamese courted arrest to demand postponement of the poll until the aliens issue was satisfactorily resolved… What precisely is the issue? Briefly, the Assamese people are fighting for their identity and survival against what “an Indian citizen of neglected Assam” described as “an undeclared invasion of their State by lakhs of foreigners.”
The then Prime Minister, Mr Charan Singh and the Deputy Prime Minister, Mr Y.B. Chavan, chose to go ahead with the Lok Sabha poll. However, the election could be held in only two of the State’s 14 constituencies. Mrs Indira Gandhi acted within two days of her taking over as Prime Minister early in January 1980. Dr S.D. Sharma was rushed off to Guwahati as her special emissary. On February 2, Mrs Gandhi and Ziani Zail Singh, then Home Minister, met the Assam students’ delegation. An accord was reached in principle. It was broadly agreed that “no election will be held in Assam until the names of all foreign nationals are removed from the electoral rolls”. But the agitation leaders soon discovered that what had been agreed was “old hat wrapped up in familiar official jargon”. The accord failed to answer five basic questions. Who are the foreigners? How are they to be detected? When will they be deported? When will the electoral rolls be revised and the postponed poll held? How will the Assamese be enabled to preserve their identity, culture and heritage? Trouble erupted again and continued…
The backdrop is necessary to understand the basis of the historic accord reached in the early hours of August 15 last, the latest poll and the future of the State and, indeed, of the region. Various explanations are being offered for the triumph of the AGP and the debacle of the Congress-I. But one basic fact stands out, as emphasised by an astute Congress-I campaigner in a candid talk last week: “We were not fighting a political campaign. We were fighting a movement. Yes, a movement which was charged with passion and a great deal of emotion.” Switching over briefly to Hindi after a pause, he said: “Khoon bola hai” and asked: “How do you expect the people and some leaders to forget all the excesses, including rape of dear ones in front of their eyes?” The vote was undoubtedly earned by erstwhile AASU and AAGSP leaders through six years of struggle, sacrifice and suffering. However the 1977 Janata wave also holds a parallel on one score: the people’s anger. A Congress-I leader recalled how he had cautioned Mrs Gandhi prior to the 1977 Lok Sabha poll: “Madam, we can fight the Opposition parties. But how do we fight people’s wrath?”
Assam has traditionally been a Congress-I State. The party bagged 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in 1977 even when the Janata wave swept the Hindi heartland. But the Assamese people were forced to sit up when in September 1978 the then Chief Election Commissioner, Mr S.L. Shakdher, sounded an alarm. He not only expressed concern over the continuing influx of foreigners into the region but warned that unless the influx was stopped the foreigners might come to dominate the region. The fat was in the fire when preparations were undertaken for a Lok Sabha byelection from Mangaldoi in mid-1979. These showed that some 45,000 foreigners were on the electoral rolls. Objections had been raised against some 70,000 names. The problem was not new. The issue was taken up time and again by Assam with the Central leaders, beginning with Nehru himself. New Delhi repeatedly promised to deport the foreigners and end the infiltration. But little was allowed to be done by deep vested interests. The foreigners provided the Congress-I with convenient and reliable vote banks. Meanwhile, quid pro quo continued and so did infiltration.
Assam’s youth and intellectuals hopefully waited for the State’s political leaders to move in the matter. But nothing happened. AASU then stepped forward and so also the intellectuals under the banner of Assam Gana Sangram Parishad. Initially, the movement posed a dilemma for a state which was Congress at heart. But before long it involved almost the entire Assamese population. Even the latest poll appears to have posed a predicament for many, including the youth, as reflected in a significant aside to the unfortunate episode in which the helicopter of Mr Amitabh Bachchan was damaged by AGP’s young volunteers. One of the students, who was among those hurling stones, came up to Mr Bachchan, thrust a note into his hand, rejoined the crowd and again started hurling stones at the helicopter. The note, which saddened Mr Bachchan, read: “You are one of our super stars. We love you and admire you. When you were fighting for your life, we sat up all night and prayed for you. But we have sworn to fight for our survival and for the AGP. We are today opposed to the Congress-I. You should not have come. Please go away. We still love you.”
Assam has traditionally been a Congress-I State. The party bagged 10 of the 14 Lok Sabha seats in 1977 even when the Janata wave swept the Hindi heartland. But the Assamese people were forced to sit up when in September 1978 the then Chief Election Commissioner, Mr S.L. Shakdher, sounded an alarm. He not only expressed concern over the continuing influx of foreigners into the region but warned that unless the influx was stopped the foreigners might come to dominate the region.
This brings us to a crucial question, a question which is being asked widely: how regional and parochial is the AGP? I am afraid the AGP is in this case more sinned against than sinning. As I ‘ventured to submit on Doordarshan’s national network as the anchorman for the special election telecasts, the AGP cannot in all fairness be dubbed as a regional party in the generally understood sense of the term like the Telugu Desam or the DMK or the AIADMK. Undoubtedly, the AGP is restricted to Assam and has a limited regional base. But its main plank is still the foreigners issue and implementation of the Accord even as it stands for the State’s speedy economic progress and a better deal for its long-neglected people. AASU and AAGSP clearly rendered great service by raising a vital national issue and compelling the Centre to shoulder its constitutional and moral responsibility on the question of foreigners. The AGP can be likened closest to Sheikh Abdullah’s National Conference, a party with a national and secular outlook. This is not to say that regional parties like Telugu Desam lack nationalism and are anti-national.
The Assamese are traditionally nationalist and secular in their outlook and approach. They are essentially polite and peace loving. They are inclined to take life easy and largely believe in “lahe lahe”—slowly, slowly. But once roused they can be very tough and invincible as shown by history. The Mughals mounted 17 invasions of Kamrup, as Assam has been traditionally known. But they failed to conquer the State. In fact, the great Mughal General, Mir Jumla, met his Waterloo at the hands of the great Ahom General, Lachit Barphookan, whose famous saying, which has relevance even in today’s India, is inscribed in letters of gold on the entrance of Shillong’s beautiful Raj Bhawan. Said the General: “My uncle is not greater than my country. (Lachit Barphookan had his own uncle beheaded for turning a traitor and joining hands with Mir Jumla.) The word “foreigners” has been deliberately distorted to confuse the issue. The Assamese are opposed only to the foreigners, not the Assamese Muslims and outsiders from elsewhere in India, who include large numbers of Biharis, Nepalis, Marwaris and Punjabis.
Not many today now or remember that Assam almost went to Pakistan as a Muslim majority province but for a hard struggle put up by one of its great sons and freedom fighters: Gopinath Bordoloi. Eventually, Sylhet, a predominantly Muslim majority area was detached from Assam Province, as the State was then known, and given to Pakistan — and Assam enabled at Gandhiji’s instance to continue with India. Those who live in Sylhet and many who have infiltrated from erstwhile East Pakistan or Bangladesh, it is said, have not given up their dream. In fact, not a few knowledgeable people in the region have heaved a sigh of relief over the majority secured by the AGP. Prof G.G. Swell, who is a former Deputy Speaker of the Lok Sabha and hails from Shillong told me on Friday in Parliament’s Central Hall: “The United Minorities Front was hoping this time to be a deciding factor. Thank God, the AGP and its leaders, who are nationalists, have won a majority. Otherwise, the whole of the north-east and its affairs may have been influenced or even run by remote control from Dacca. The danger is real and it behoves us to take serious notice of this.”
Where do we go from here? Fortunately, both Mr Mahanta and Mr Phukan have spoken in the right accents and idiom and, what is more, carry sober and sensible heads over their young shoulders. They have also the benefit of sound advice from Mr Dinesh Goswami, whose triumphant return to the Lok Sabha should help greatly strengthen the Opposition and Parliament, and others. (The Lok Sabha will also stand to gain greatly by the election of Mr Shahabuddin, Janata’s General Secretary, and the return of Mr Somnath Chatterjee of the CPM. Importantly, the Press has been largely unfair to Mr Shahabuddin. He won his poll on a socialist and secular platform and, according to his solemn word, “did not even once refer to the Shahbano case”) The AGP Ministry will need to take the earliest opportunity to do two things. First, reassure the genuine minorities as against illegal immigrants that their interests are safe. Second, take the earliest steps to implement the Assam Accord which has received the overwhelming support of all sections of the Assamese people barring those who have voted for the UMF and have other designs.
The Assamese are traditionally nationalist and secular in their outlook and approach. They are essentially polite and peace loving. They are inclined to take life easy and largely believe in “lahe lahe”–slowly, slowly. But once roused they can be very tough and invincible as shown by history.
The UMF leader, Mr Golam Osmani, has already thrown a challenge at the AGP. He has reportedly announced that the UMF will oppose implementation of the Accord. The supporters of the UMF may have reason to feel let down by the Congress-I against all that they had to suffer in supporting the party during the 1983 election. But Mr Rajiv Gandhi showed statesmanship in hammering out the Accord and in agreeing to dissolve the Assembly, based on a poll which was illegal, unconstitutional and immoral, and order fresh elections. But the challenge thrown by Mr Osmani is not only to the new State Government. It is even more so to New Delhi. The challenge must be met jointly by the Centre and the State Government and some joint framework evolved for speedy implementation of the Accord. Thought must also be given to tomorrow and infiltration ended. The State has already suffered greatly over the past six years. This time to open a new chapter. The UMF and its supporters should not be left in doubt on one score. Assam, as I wrote six years ago, is not for burning or for gifting away!— INFA