Ever since Himanta Biswa Sarma took over as the Chief Minister of Assam, Assam is on the path of development. Witnessing the aggression of a particular community, that is, Muslims towards Hindus, Himanta has asked ‘RSS’ for help to save the latter.
Assam is going to become another Kashmir- Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma
While on a two-day tour to the Barak Valley, Sarma reached RSS Cachar district organizational headquarters, Keshav Niketan in Silchar for a meeting. As reported by Times of India, Sarma said, “Assam is going to become another Kashmir. Satras are in great danger because of aggression by a section of people. At the same time, the Hindus living in the tea belt and far-flung border areas of the state are also on the verge of extinction because of massive aggression. I urge upon the RSS karyakartas to go to the areas and consolidate Hindus to save the institutions from the danger. You can do it because you have a grassroot-level organisation and strong bond with common people in remote areas. I request the Sangh to help the government in this direction.”
The CM further said, “It’s true that there are some people in the state who are staunch opponents of CAA and NRC. However, things have begun changing. We are trying to make them understand that the CAA and NRC are not against the interest of Assam and Assamese people. Members from the intelligentsia, who met me recently, conveyed the message to me that Bengali Hindus are never a threat to the Assamese community. People of Assam now understand the reality.”
What made Assam CM say that?
So what led Assam CM to give such a statement. Well, the answer lies behind the demographic changes of Assam and its political history. From the illegal immigration from its porous border with Bangladesh to Congress’s Muslim appeasement, several reasons can be held accountable for Assam Chief Minister’s concern for his state.
Muslim population in Assam
As per Census 2011, the Muslim population holds around 34.2% of total Assam’s population and has been growing at a much faster pace than the Hindu population of the state. The reason for the growing population attributes to illegal immigration by Bangladeshi Muslims, aided by the Islamist AIDUF party (a Congress ally). Deobandi Maulana and businessman Badruddin Ajmal led AIUDF, an alleged pro-Muslim party have sowed the seeds for this demographic jihad.
Earlier this year, Sarma had also raised the issue of population growth rate difference and said, “According to the Census of 2001 and 2011, the Muslim population in Assam grew constant at a rate of 29% while the growth rate of Hindus dipped from 15% in the 2001 Census to 10% in the 2011 census. One can gauge how dangerous the difference between 29% and 10% is.”
Assam’s porous border with Bangladesh
As Assam shares nearly 263 kilometres of its border with Bangladesh, it makes it easy for Bangladeshi Muslims to illegally enter the borders. Earlier this year, approximately 1.4 lakh illegal immigrants were identified according to the Assam Accord and the authorities deported around 30,000 of them.
While answering a query by Asom Gana Parishad, MLA Ramendra Narayan Kalita, Implementation of Assam Accord Minister Atul Bora had said that a total of 1,39,910 immigrants staying illegally in Assam have been detected so far.
Demographic changes during Congress tenure
Assam had witnessed major demographic changes during the tenure of the Congress party from 2001 to 2016. The aged-old party, in order to grab vote share from the Muslims, did not take any action against illegal immigrants which led various districts of the state to become a Muslim majority. Senior Supreme Court lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika, in 2017, had said, “By 2040, the indigenous people are going to become the minority and the illegal Bangladeshi Muslim migrants will become the majority and it may happen that in 2040 the CM of Assam is likely to be an illegal immigrant. As per the government’s own admission in 2001, out of the 2.61 crore population of Assam, 50 lakh were illegal immigrants. In other words, every 5th person in Assam is an illegal Muslim outsider. The entire demography of Assam has changed.”
He further added, “In 1901 only two out of the then eight districts had Muslim population of more than 25%—Goalpara and Cachar. In 2001, out of the 23 districts, six had become Muslim majority. Dhubri has a mind boggling 74% Muslim population and the total percentage of Muslims in the state is now 35% and if you go through the data, the border areas are the regions which have seen exponential growth of Muslim population. In the last 20 years, in many bordering villages of Assam, the number of Muslim voters has increased by more than five times. In recent years, fewer than 2,500 illegal immigrants have been deported. No serious detection and deportation of illegal Muslims was done all these years due to minority appeasement policy and since identification and deporting them has failed, the only remedy is to reserve lands and jobs for only those Assamese who were a citizen before 1971. That will stop more migrants from coming to Assam.”
Cow smuggling in the state
There exist many points along the porous India-Bangladesh border that enables illegal cattle smuggling. The smuggling occurs through the border from Dhubri district is Jatropur, which is considered to be one of the largest cattle markets in Bangladesh. A few years back, The BSF had identified 65 cattle corridors along the border.
Ever since BJP stormed back to power in Assam for a second consecutive term in March and April, strict measures were taken against illegal cow smuggling. The Border Security Forces had seized 476,035 head of cattle between 2016 and 2020 along the Indo-Bangla border, according to the Union Government. Moreover, between December 1, 2019, and November 30, 2020, a total of 24,060 cows were also seized from the Assam-Bangladesh border.
However, Himanta Biswa Sarma, the incumbent CM of Assam, seems to be gravely concerned about the demographic changes. Considering his strategies for the eradication of problems in the state, it can be believed that his stature is only set to rise as he is going to create a better future for Assam.