Bangladeshi free Assam promise : Spelling out BJP’s agenda
- The Sangai Express Editorial :: April 11 2016 -
Bangladeshi free Assam.
This is the poll promise announced by BJP president Amit Shah just ahead of the second phase poll in Assam.
How effectively will the BJP be able to tackle this issue remains to be seen, but it should be more than obvious that incursion from Bangladesh has always been a big issue in Assam.
Whether this cuts ice with the people will perhaps be known only after the results of the Assembly election roll in, but significant to note that the BJP has managed to set an agenda.
In more than one way this is also a statement that the Congress has not been able to satisfactorily address the issue of infiltration from across the border and significant to note that Tarun Gogoi has already finished three consecutive terms in office as the Chief Minister.
The natural question that follows is whether the Congress has failed to address this issue, despite being in power for the last 15 years and whether the BJP can address this issue, if voted to power after the election.
All questions at the moment, but significant to note that infiltration from across the border or from Bangladesh is yet to be addressed to satisfactorily even after all these years.
Remember how the anti-foreigner movement pitchforked the All Assam Students’ Union into the limelight and gave birth to the Asom Gana Parishad.
A student movement which gave birth to a political party and saw the emergence of Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and the late Bhrigu Phukan as political leaders in their own right.
The Nellie massacre of 1983, in the midst of the Assam agitation, was also related to the movement against the Bangladeshi immigrants.
It was back in 1985 that the Assam Accord was signed when the late Rajiv Gandhi was the Prime Minister of the country.
But nothing much to suggest the Accord has been a success and the question of infiltration from across the border has been addressed to fittingly.
Now with the BJP promising a ‘Bangladeshi free Assam’ if voted to power, it remains to be seen how much this will impact on the voters’ mindset.
It will be sometime before the results of the election are announced, but Amit Shah has raised a significant point which is difficult to ignore, for Assam can never be completely understood or known without taking cognizance the Bangladesh factor.
Or to be more specific, Bangladeshis who made their way into the country illegally.
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