Gogoi’s Hindu card gamble is biting back—with the Bodos
 |
| Locals cycle past armymen patrolling in Kokrajhar town |
First
things first: thrice as many Muslims have been killed in Assam in
July-August than Hindu Bodos whose cause the BJP is so passionately
advocating nationally. Some 56 Muslims lost their lives, compared to 17
on the Bodo side. Rampaging Bodos also mistook two Bengali Hindus for
members of the minority community and shot them, but these two murders
are still a state secret. The official death toll, 84, includes the nine
unidentified bodies rotting in the police morgues.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi, speaking to Outlook, refused to
divulge the exact number of dead Muslims and Bodos; he mumbled endlessly
in the pin-drop silence of his study about how the publication of
community-wise casualty figures would hurt national interests and hamper
the return of normalcy in the Bodo Territorial Autonomous Districts
(BTAD), where the savagery started in late July, forcing lakhs of people
from both communities to flee their homes.
“The burning question today is: will the Bodo terrorists again get
away with murder as they have always done in the past, or will they be
made to pay for their heinous crimes against humanity?” asks Devabrata
Sharma, leading civil rights campaigner and professor of English at
Jorhat College. Political analyst Noni Gopal Mahanta believes that Sonia
Gandhi and Manmohan Singh, who rushed to the bleeding state, besides
despatching P. Chidambaram and Sushil Shinde, might compel Gogoi to
crack down this time on the Bodos, at least to assuage Muslim sentiments
across India ahead of general elections. “There is so much at stake
that I even foresee Gogoi losing his job if he doesn’t deliver,” says
Mahanta.
Classified Special Branch figures accessed by Outlook reveal
that whether their targets are Muslims or Adivasis, the Bodos have
invariably inflicted more casualties than they have suffered. The reason
is quite simple—the AK-47s Bodo militias were supposed to surrender
after signing the 2003 peace accord but didn’t. An Assam government
official disclosed that extremist groups like the Bodo Liberation Tigers
(BLT) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) have as many as
350-400 automatic weapons in their arsenal in the four districts
comprising BTAD—Kokrajhar, Chirang, Udalguri and Baksa.
As killings spiralled in recent weeks, the Union home ministry had
directed the Assam government to immediately launch a deweaponisation
programme. But the administration is still dragging its feet. To be
sure, the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF)—the political party launched
after the peace accord—is a coalition partner in Gogoi’s government. But
the BPF, like the BLT and NDFB, also enjoys the full backing of the BJP
in its blatantly communal campaign against so-called Bangladeshi
‘infiltrators’. The nexus between BPF lawmakers—some are now in the dock
for the anti-Muslim pogrom—and BJP leaders ranging from Guwahati MP
Bijoya Chakraborty to L.K. Advani and Nitin Gadkari is an undeniable
reality.
On August 7, BPF MPs S.K. Bwiswmuthiary and Biswajit Daimary,
Bodoland Territorial Council deputy chairman Kampa Borgoyari and All
Bodo Students Union president Pramod Bodo shared the stage with Gadkari
and retired Lt Gen S.K. Sinha during a seminar on ‘Bodo Hindus—Refugees
in their own land: Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators—the new kingmakers in
an Indian state’, organised by the Dr Shyama Prasad Mookerjee Research
Foundation in Delhi. C.K. Das, retired chief secretary of Assam and now a
BJP full-timer, is known to liaise with the BPF leadership on behalf of
the Sangh parivar.
Gogoi parried questions about the BPF’s cosy relationship with the
BJP while sharing power with the Congress. “I have nothing to say at
present because all political parties have agreed upon a ceasefire for
the sake of peace. But being the CM, I am certainly not in the dark
about what’s going on in Assam or Delhi,” he said. In the 2011 assembly
elections, Gogoi easily got the better of both Hindutva parties—the BJP
and AGP—by pandering to Hindu voters. Realising that the Muslims had
deserted the Congress for the Ajmal Badruddin-led aiduf, Gogoi pulled
out all the stops to court the Hindu constituency with stunning results.
 |
| Invite to the BJP-organised meet on ‘Bodo Hindu refugees’ |
“Gogoi projected himself as the saviour of Assamese Hindus. His
rhetoric put even the VHP and Bajrang Dal in the shade. Naturally, he
stole the BJP-AGP’s thunder,” says Rashid Chowdhury, prominent high
court lawyer and the brains behind the Citizens’ Rights Preservation
Committee (CRPC). The Congress won an absolute majority, bagging 78
seats in a house of 126. “It suits Gogoi politically to pile pressure on
the BPF to part company with the BJP...which poses a challenge to the
Congress anyway,” adds Chowdhury. “But the BPF, which has its own
extremist-supremacist agenda, might not comply; let’s not forget that
the BPF is irresistibly drawn to the BJP.”
The Bodos chose the terror path way back in 1987 with the slogan,
‘Divide Assam 50-50’, leaving behind a grisly trail of death and
destruction. The first tripartite peace treaty between the Bodos, the
Centre and state government was signed in 1993; the Congress ruled in
both Delhi and Dispur then but the pact collapsed in no time under the
weight of its own contradictions. So another accord was signed in 2003
when the BJP was in power at the Centre and Gogoi ruled the state. It
had L.K. Advani’s blessings but was destined to be disastrous because
the BTAD, covering some 8,795 sq km area, was handed on a platter to the
Bodos who comprise merely 20 per cent of the population. And in the
newly-created self-governing body called Bodo Territorial Council (BTC),
30 out of 46 seats were reserved for Bodos!
Devabrata, who is the chief advisor of the leftist United
Revolutionary Movement Council of Assam (URMCA), says, “Nothing could be
more undemocratic and discriminatory (than the creation of the
BTAD-BTC). Democracy is all about majority rule. BTAD-BTC is just the
reverse of that principle. How can 20 per cent rule over 80 per cent?
Because the Bodos do not enjoy numerical majority, they are resorting to
ethnic cleansing, targeting Muslims, Adivasis, Rajbanshis and even
Assamese caste Hindus. The Bodos have become a law unto themselves. We
stand for the dissolution of BTAD and BTC to stop the rape of democracy.
Bodos comprise a little over six per cent of the state’s population but
are demanding 50 per cent of Assam for the Bodoland of their dreams.
Muslims comprise over 30 per cent of Assam’s population. Yet they have
so far displayed exemplary patience despite grave provocations. What
will happen if Muslims and other victimised communities unite and
retaliate?”
Sharma’s depiction of Bodo belligerence is borne out by Anjali Daimari’s response to Outlook’s
poser about the ways and means to restore the peace. Daimary, convenor
of the Bodo National Conference, an umbrella organisation of 25 Bodo
outfits, replied: “Obviously there is no place for illegal migrants in
BTAD. What’s even more crucial and non-negotiable is that all non-Bodos
living in BTAD should be mentally prepared to meekly accept the
leadership of the Bodos.” Asked to elaborate, she added: “There is
simply no room in BTAD for bodies like the Anabodo Suraksha Samity, or
Non-Bodos Protection Committee. Who are these Mahantas and Kalitas
running the Samity? Assamese Hindus, Muslims, Bengalis, Rajbanshis,
Adivasis, Nepalis or Saranias residing in BTAD must curb their egos for
their own good. That’s it.”
Clearly, the Bodos are a very confident lot today, having grown from
strength to strength since 2003. They have reaped huge dividends from
their investments in both the national parties. Besides running the BTC,
they have extracted tangible and intangible benefits as partners in two
successive Congress-led coalition governments in Assam since 2006. In
2006, out of the 10 BPF MLAs three were made ministers by Gogoi (whose
regime was a bit shaky at that stage because the Congress had only 53
seats in the 126-strong legislative assembly). But in 2011 the Congress
tally shot up to 78 seats. Now there are 12 BPF MLAs, but only one,
Chandan Brahmo, is a minister. Significantly, the BPF has leveraged its
political clout to send an MP to the Rajya Sabha (Biswajit Daimary),
instal a Bodo judge in the Gauhati High Court (P.K. Mushary), a Bodo
chairman in the Assam Public Service Commission (Gita Basumatary), a
Bodo governor in the Shillong Raj Bhawan (Ranjit Sekhar Mooshary) and
even a Bodo election commissioner (H.S. Brahma).
The recent massacre of Muslims has reopened the debate over the
wisdom of signing peace accords with “agents of violence wearing a
fig-leaf of ethno-nationalism”, to quote Ravindra Narayan Ravi, one of
the Intelligence Bureau’s foremost experts on the Northeast. Ravi, who
retired as special director in April, says, “The situation has worsened
since 1993 when the state started appeasing radical ethno-nationalists
for political gains and inaugurated as many as 21 ethnic-centric
constitutional, statutory and administrative autonomous councils.
Hiteswar Saikia (former CM) spawned seven. Gogoi has fathered 14. The
BLT, responsible for much of the recent bloodshed, was supposed to have
disarmed itself in 2003 but its core armed capability has remained
intact with the tacit nod of the state. The government’s patronage of
non-state agents of violence, alluring them with incentives for their
smash-and-grab politics and the total collapse of the criminal justice
system have created a criminogenic environment in Assam.”
“The new councils have overnight created a large mass of disgruntled
others who share the habitat but feel institutionally discriminated
against by the state. Innumerable faultlines, hitherto latent or
non-existent, emerged and unleashed centripetal forces of varying
magnitude. Communities that peacefully existed for long are now gunning
for each other. In the last two decades, Bodos, Muslims, Adivasis,
Koch-Rajbanshis, Rabhas, Garos, Karbis, Dimasas, Nagas, Kukis, Hmars,
Morans and Mishings have clashed frequently,” he adds. According to
Ravi, “the Centre that underwrites Gogoi’s misadventures is a partner in
his sins; the state government today is like a zombie with a
Kalashnikov in one hand and wads of cash in the other—both generously
supplied by the Centre!”
Wajahat Habibullah, one of India’s most respected civil servants who
now heads the National Commission for Minorities (NCM), has given the
prime minister in writing that there is every danger of the Muslims in
BTAD becoming militants in the future if their security is not ensured.
The NCM report submitted after visiting Assam states that jehadi
elements from the rest of the country might start sending lethal weapons
to the troubled region if remedial action is not taken quickly.
Devabrata, on the other hand, invoked Shakespeare. “The bard wrote that
something is rotten in the state of Denmark. The same can be said about
Assam today.”
Courtesy : Outlook India
No comments:
Post a Comment