By Inder Jit
(Released on 10 May 1981)
New Delhi and Gauhati will need to keep their fingers crossed – and so also thinking people elsewhere in the country. Talks on the foreigners issue are being resumed at long last, thanks to the patient and determined efforts behind the scenes by the erstwhile Governor, Mr. L.P. Singh, since early February and by the erstwhile Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. Krishnaswamy Rao Sahib. Happily, both sides have avoided rigidity and cooperated purposefully in unfreezing the issue. There is anxiety all round to find a solution which is honourable and practical. Delay in resolving the issue has already cost the country much. Extremist elements have been increasingly active, notwithstanding the firm commitment of the leadership of the All Assam Students Union and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad to hold by the Gandhian values of satyagraha and non-violence. A hundred incidents and explosions have taken place in the State since the talks broke down in November last. Of these, 50 have occurred this year alone involving loss of life and property.
Many in New Delhi and elsewhere are inclined to think that the Assam movement has petered out. “Where are the agitators,” they ask and add: “Surely the lull over the past few months can lead us to only one conclusion.” But the fact is that this is not so and, in this case, appearances are deceptive. There are two reasons for the relative calm, so to say. First, no mass movement can be sustained at the same pitch or momentum indefinitely. Let it be remembered that even Mahatma Gandhi ran into difficulty repeatedly in keeping up the tempo of the movements he launched. Actually, the people of Assam have done one better and conducted themselves and their prolonged agitation peacefully barring unfortunate incidents. Second, the leaders of the Assam agitation, I am told, deliberately decided to soft pedal the movement for a while to ensure that the students could take their annual examinations in April and did not lose another year of their studies. The movement could thus be said to have been virtually suspended for the past few months.
Contrary to what some hawks in New Delhi think, the feelings of the Assamese people have not changed nor have their emotions on the issue cooled down. If anything, the people inwardly seem to feel even more strongly. What is more, there is now an element of bitterness among them — a bitterness caused by the Centre’s “refusal” to respond adequately to their peaceful movement. “Must one always indulge in violence and shooting, as in Mizoram”? asks a prominent Assamese. Not many in New Delhi still appreciate fully the extent of involvement of the people; a friend recalls how an Assamese posted in the Union Government was surprised to find on visiting Gauhati his 80-year-old grandmother actively participating in the agitation! Indeed, an independent observer from Assam candidly told me: “God forbid that the forthcoming talks should fail. We are then certain to have big trouble made worse by a new element: communalism. Please remember, the people of the State strongly believe in the justness of their cause. Many are prepared to stake their all.”
Mrs. Gandhi and her administration are pleased with the State Chief Minister, Mrs Anwara Taimur. Said an authoritative source: “She has largely delivered the goods in a difficult situation. Oil has been flowing from the State for some time and so also plywood. The administration has also been functioning. The Government employees have not been able to paralyse it. Law and order has been generally maintained.” Nevertheless, any attempt to jump to conclusions or write off the people’s potential to assert their power again will only creates problems later. Normalcy has been restored because of the heavy deployment of forces. (Assam has had as many as 27 battalions of the para military forces, apart from the Army which has been standing by; 12 battalions of the CRP and BSF and 10 of the Assam Armed Police.) Even then, the extremist elements have successfully caused trouble. They also seem to be equipped well. Several of the devices exploded were powerful and sophisticated. Foreign involvement? Replied an informed source: “There is no evidence so far. The devices could as well be Indian.”
Important assurances have been conveyed to the leaders of the agitation on behalf of the Government in a bid to end doubts and distrust. The Prime Minister, they have been told, understands Assam’s problem well and has every sympathy with the people’s sentiments and demands. Moreover, Mrs. Gandhi, it has been stated, wants to reach an amicable settlement with the leaders of the agitation. An inside source said: “She sincerely does not wish to impose a solution. But she and the Government have their difficulties and constraints.” Another source explained: “New Delhi has not only to think of the humanitarian aspect of the problem but also its national implications. New Delhi cannot ignore its obligations of the partition of 1947. It has also to take note of international repercussions. India has been cautioned by its friends against acting hastily in dealing with the infiltrators from Bangladesh at a time when it is seeking to strengthen its economic ties and friendship with the oil-rich Arab States and other countries of the Islamic bloc, which have close links with Dacca”.
Talks on the foreigners issue are being resumed at long last, thanks to the patient and determined efforts behind the scenes by the erstwhile Governor, Mr. L.P. Singh, since early February and by the erstwhile Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister, Mr. Krishnaswamy Rao Sahib. Happily, both sides have avoided rigidity and cooperated purposefully in unfreezing the issue.
AASU leaders have also been urged to come to an honourable agreement in the best interests of both the State and the country. Further delay in resolving the problem, it has been pointed out, will only perpetuate political instability within Assam and deny the people of the State an opportunity to elect a Government of their own choice. Said one source: “The Centre is willing today to dissolve the Assembly and order fresh elections. But it is unable to do so since elections cannot be held without resolving the foreigners’ issue. The present Taimur Ministry will continue till the State is ready to go to the polls again”. Added a second source: The Government has already agreed to detect and deport foreigners who have infiltrated into Assam after March 25, 1971. The way things are moving may create hurdles even in sending back those who may have crossed over in 1980! (President Ziaur Rahman told me in Dacca recently that “no Bangladeshis” had crossed into India!) Furthermore, Assam will continue to be largely unrepresented in Parliament.
The differences between the Government and the agitation leaders have fortunately narrowed down to two points. First, what is to be done to those who have come between 1961 and 1971? (New Delhi has agreed to detect and deport all those who have come after 1971 and the Assam leaders have agreed to let those who came between 1951 and 1961 to stay on.) Efforts are now expected to be made to forge agreement on an earlier compromise formula, which provides for 1967 as the cut-off date. Such a formula appears to enjoy a wide measure of support, especially since it enables the Centre and the State Government to uphold its partition commitment to tens of thousands of refugees who have crossed into India from Bangladesh following communal riots in Narayanganj and elsewhere between 1964 and 1967. According to earlier projections, 9.5 lakhs of persons were estimated to have come into Assam between 1961 and 1971. Latest estimates, however, place the number at a maximum of 5 lakhs, including 2.5 lakhs of registered and rehabilitated refugees. Those who have come after 1967 are said to total less than one lakh.
Second, what about the AASU demand for detection of all foreigners on the basis of the National Register of Citizens of 1951 and the Electoral Rolls of 1952? Interestingly, those working hard for an amicable solution feel that this hurdle is not in surmountable. They view it more as a problem of “semantics”. It is suggested that the purpose of the students will be served if the word “scrutiny” is substituted for detection. Once 1967 is accepted as the cut-off date, it is argued, then there will be no difficulty in using the NRC, the Electoral Rolls or any other relevant documents for scrutinising doubtful cases and for determining who is a foreigner and who is not. Said an informed observer: “Talk of detection without a cut-off date will have a widespread unsettling effect in the State. But there will be no such unsettlement if you talk in terms of scrutiny and of using the 1951 NRC for the purpose.” Veteran administrators recall that some Jamait leaders had in 1964-65 used the NRC with the Centre’s help to prove that many suspected of being foreigners were actually Indian citizens!
Actually, the people of Assam have done one better and conducted themselves and their prolonged agitation peacefully barring unfortunate incidents. Second, the leaders of the Assam agitation, I am told, deliberately decided to soft pedal the movement for a while to ensure that the students could take their annual examinations in April.
The 1967 formula, as I ventured to suggest early in November last year, provides the most practical way out of the deadlock. For one thing, it should not be impossible to move a lakh of persons who came after 1967 out of the State and to settle them elsewhere in the country. For another, administrative steps could be taken to ensure that those who are deported do not sneak back into the State for permanent settlement. They could be easily barred from acquiring land or property or from enrolling themselves afresh in the electoral rolls. (New Delhi has already agreed to deport all those who were deported to Bangladesh between 1961 and 1971 — about 2.5 lakhs but may have found their way back into India). Simultaneously, the Assamese people could be given constitutional or other guarantees to preserve their identity, language and heritage. The law could, for instance, be amended to provide that Assamese would continue as the State’s official language and any change would require to be voted by a two-thirds majority. A simple majority is adequate at present.
First, what is to be done to those who have come between 1961 and 1971? (New Delhi has agreed to detect and deport all those who have come after 1971 and the Assam leaders have agreed to let those who came between 1951 and 1961 to stay on.) Efforts are now expected to be made to forge agreement on an earlier compromise formula, which provides for 1967 as the cut-off date. Second, what about the AASU demand for detection of all foreigners on the basis of the National Register of Citizens of 1951 and the Electoral Rolls of 1952?
All in all, no effort should be spared to find a realistic and reasonable solution. Hawks must be kept in check, especially in New Delhi. Some of them believe that there is not much that the extremists can do in the Brahmaputra Valley. Law of the land and the population mix, they argue, does not admit any insurgency as in the case of Nagaland and Mizoram which have hilly terrain and almost wholly tribal populations. But these hawks ignore one basic fact. Nothing prevents any people, even if they are in a minority, from taking to terrorism and sabotage. In Manipur, for instance, an insurgent group has been indulging in terrorism time and again, notwithstanding the deployment of large forces. The people of Assam have always been nationalists and must not be alienated. Wisdom lies on both sides in going by overall good sense and in hammering out a solution through give and take. This has been done in narrowing down the differences. Much valuable time, as I said earlier, has been already lost. — INFA