Tarun Gogoi: Birthday Greetings to the CM who ruined Assam
Narendra Modi, in one of his recent campaign speeches in Assam, spoke of how the BJP’s electoral battle in the state, was not against any individual; but instead against the poverty and destruction of Assam carried out under the watch of the Tarun Gogoi led incumbent government in the state
Unfortunately, the tendency of most to dismiss statements like the one above, as stereotypical electoral bluster, is on expected lines; but this cynicism is understandable; especially in a country like India, where vote bank dependent, status quoist political dispensations have come and gone, without making any significant contribution whatsoever towards eradicating the dire predicaments of poverty, economic inequality, corruption and lack of development that our country has long been plagued with.
But staying in Assam, it is extremely necessary that we understand the full extent of these predicaments faced by the population of the state; problems which are only further compounded by the mass immigration of illegal Bangladeshi’s into Assam over the years; and particularly during the last more than one decade, under the tacitly supportive watch of a Tarun Gogoi led Congress government; a problem that has already markedly transformed the demographic of a state, which has witnessed the highest decadal population growth of Muslims, which went up by an abnormal 3.3 percentage points, as compared to the national average of 0.8 percentage points i.e. from 30.9% in 2001 (which was the year in which Tarun Gogoi was elected to power) to 34.2% in 2011; with this growth rate being surprisingly higher in those districts of Assam that were located away from the border with Bangladesh a fact which reflects the apathy of the administration in Assam which turns a blind eye to the infiltration and free movement of illegal aliens within the state; along with the rampant state level corruption that enables these illegal aliens to procure official Indian identification and easily enroll themselves in the state’s voter lists.
It is however pertinent to note that this kind of vote bank politics which the Congress party is famous for engaging in across the country, is not necessarily going to benefit them in Assam in the long run. Because even if Tarun Gogoi has managed to get elected for three consecutive terms in Assam, thanks to his government’s sustained ‘benevolence’ towards the illegal Bangladeshis, who have by and large been absorbed into Assam’s population; the emergence of political parties like the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) is testament to the power of the Muslim vote bank in Assam, which even though was previously monopolized by the Congress, has now been significantly fragmented to accommodate the AIUDF, which even if it claims to be a democratic political party, is really nothing more than a Muslim pandering political outfit started in 2004 by the wealthy perfume baron Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, whose popularity among Muslims in Assam had made the AIUDF the principal opposition party that won 18 assembly seats in the state’s assembly elections of 2011, within a mere 7 years of the party being founded.
It is not unexpected then for the native population of Assam to feel helpless, disillusioned and resentful towards the apathy of the state government at this demographic invasion, which threatens to destroy the cultural ethos of an entire state’s populace.
But it is not just the cultural ethos of Assam that is being threatened by this demographic shift; uncontrolled illegal migration is also bound to have impacted the economy of a state in which the per capita income is among the lowest in the country and where 31.98% of the population lives under the poverty line.
But one wonders if these problems were of any concern to Tarun Gogoi and his government, over the last 15 years, since they have done precious little to address the problems of a state, which has also borne the brunt of insurgent movements and internal conflicts over the years.
But then this is not surprising when complacency attributable to a vote bank cushion prevents a power obsessed dispensation from taking any steps to halt the gradual ruin of a state.
Whether the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will make inroads into Assam in the forthcoming assembly elections remains to be seen. As of now they certainly seem to possess the advantage. Narendra Modi’s campaign speeches in Assam, promising an overhaul of Assam’s economy and more importantly the NDA’s promise to complete seal the Bangladesh-Assam border will most likely strike a chord with those many in the state, who are facing the brunt of this widespread cultural invasion. Furthermore the declaration of the dynamic Sarbananda Sonowal as its Chief Ministerial candidate; a man who recognizes the threat posed to the Assamese identity has certainly given BJP’s chances in Assam that much needed shot in the arm, to take down a government that has completely failed its people.
References:
http://www.livemint.com/Opinion/r0wWgeyhHBWfdKIfciWmTP/Spatial-poverty-in-Assam.html
http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/detailsnew.asp?id=jul2713%2Fat07