THE BROKEN PROMISE: ASSAM MOVEMENT, ASSAM ACCORD AND C(A)A 2019

It was November, 2019. The location was the state of Assam, actually its Guwahati city, to be more precise. The otherwise busy National Highway 17 running through the city was drowning in utter silence and the pains and tears of the people living nearby. The only sound from the highway was that of the Paramilitary forces’ trucks, carrying Paramilitary jawaans to 'control situation'. Assam Police was there ready all the time. Some of us who reside by the highway used to go to the then all-time-empty highway and kept watching the road and looked up to the sky with eyes wet, in heartache, helplessness and frustration. There were protest rallies and gatherings in places of the city. We shouted slogans on the roads of the city for our people. We cried for our land and our culture. The young students wrote posters against then Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), with their own blood. State Government imposed Section 144 in the city and in many other places of the state. Internet connection was cut down. Public transportation even within the city dropped down to very limited. Both the Central Government and Assam Government were in support of passing the Citizenship Amendment Bill in the Houses and had absolutely no concern for public’s opinions, pain and demands; no value for the public protests were there. Indeed, the Government did everything it could do to stop protests and forcefully imposed Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 on people. Five young boys were shot dead, hence martyred in the Movement. Notably, our state Assam has already been burdened with illegal migrants from Bangladesh, for decades. The front line student-force led anti-CAB and anti-CAA movement was smoothly misled by some public figures pretending to be with the public, hence reducing the heat and easing up things for the Government.

Citizenship Amendment Bill and Assam

Details of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 are known to almost all. But we feel like hardly anyone from the mainland India was really interested in knowing the extra harmful effect that C(A)A was going to put on the demographic and socio-cultural scenario of Assam. For that, one must know the details of illegal immigration issue of Assam, the great Assam Movement or Assam Agitation and specially the Assam Accord. Only then one may understand that why the Assamese people protested against C(A)A, 2019 at such fierce extent. But this does not imply that we support any violent act by the protesters.

Detection of the illegal immigrants issue in Assam for the first time: Some flashbacks

The issue of illegal immigrants in Assam were first detected in March, 1979 in the Mangaldoi constituency when, on the death of the sitting Member of Parliament of that constituency, a by-election was processed by the Election Commission. But the tribunal confirmed around 72% of the Doubtful Voters or D Voters to be non-citizens. This shocking information caught full public focus in the state on the basis that if only one constituency has such high percentage of non-citizen D Voters, then what is the scenario of the entire state in terms of non-citizen population with all of its constituencies! This provided the immediate outburst of reaction, which was- the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) led Assam Agitation, in demand of detection, deletion and deportation of those immigrants.

46 years have passed since then. But the illegal immigrant issue of Assam never got solved. The Assam Agitation ended in 1985. But since 1979 till 1985, in 6 years, a total of 855 people, including minors, lost their lives in the hands of all types of security forces of the Government. We acknowledge them as 855 Martyrs. In 1985, The Central and State Governments signed the famous Assam Accord with the leaders of the Movement. (The entire Accord is available there in the internet.) However, in Assam, it is difficult to distinguish between Bengali speaking genuine citizens in the state and the Bengali speaking illegal immigrants.

After 1991 census, the changing demographic patterns in Indo-Bangla border districts of Assam became more prominent. The Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act, 1983 imposed by the Government then worsened the scenario by providing special protection to the ‘minorities’ against any undue harassment. The Act was troublesome for Assam because majority of the illegal immigrants fall under that ‘minority’ category. The IM(DT) Act was repealed later. The Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional in 2005, citing the Act's creation of a barrier to the identification and deportation of illegal migrants. But we may say that such a grand agitation that took the lives of 855 persons and left many injured for the lifetime, failed finally, as none of the three purposes- Detect, Delete, Deport, was fulfilled completely.

Clause 6 of the Assam Accord and C(A)A Movement

Clause 6 of the Assam Accord became the central point of debate in the Movement against CAB, turned into C(A)A then. C(A)A 2019 and Clause 6 of the Assam Accord are contradictory to each other. Assam Accord Clause 6 says that- “Constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards, as may be appropriate, shall be provided to protect, preserve and promote the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people.”

On the other hand, the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2019- an amendment of the Citizenship Act, 1955 were brought to give eligibility for Indian citizenship to persecuted minorities, who are- Hindus, Christians, Buddhists, Jains, Sikhs and Parsis, who entered India on or before 31^st December, 2014. Hence this Bill was a huge threat to the cultural, social, linguistic set up of the state. Besides, the Bill allowed people from these mentioned religions to get Indian citizenship with a cut off date of 31^st December, 2014 whereas in the Assam Accord, this cut-off date was decided as 25^th March, 1971. Notably, CAB completely excluded the Muslims from the purview of eligibility for Indian citizenship, which is a direct disregard to the Constitution of India that identifies the country as a secular one.

With CAB being accepted and converted into C(A)A, it has directly disregarded the Clause 6 of the Assam Accord, because obviously, the cultural, social and linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people will not be protected, preserved and promoted amidst equal citizenship rights of persons from the above mentioned religions after December, 2014.

Again, the Foreigners Act, 1946 that is applied in the other parts of the country, should have been applied to Assam also, where the cut-off year is 1951. The Foreigners Act, 1946, is a central law in India that empowers the Central Government to regulate the entry, stay, and exit of foreigners in India. It allows the Government to prohibit, restrict, or regulate these movements, and it also addresses the registration, movement, and deportation of foreigners. The Act applies to all foreigners, including refugees and stateless persons. But in the Assam Accord, the parties involved decided it as 1971 for Assam, which is still a point of argument in the state. Although the National Register of Citizens (NRC) was conducted in Assam with the purpose of documenting all the legal citizens of India so that the illegal immigrants can be identified and deported, yet the purpose has not been fulfilled.

Both the Central and the State Governments and some added opportunist public figures 'proudly' yet shamelessly washed their hands with the blood of five martyrs - Sam Stafford, Dipanjal Das, Ishwar Nayak, Abdul Alim and Dwijendra Panging, and entertained themselves with the pain and cries of the public, with dominating torture on the unarmed students by the armed force, with wounds on protesters' bodies. Many protestors were arrested with the accusation of traitors for even writing rebellious poems, write ups, many were arrested for supporting them on social media. This scenario is still continuing in India, mostly in my state- Assam. In India’s current political climate, calling out injustice is treated like sedition, and people who speak truth to power are branded as 'anti-national', 'urban Naxals', and 'traitors'. Public are made engaged in Hindu-Muslim hatred propaganda by the politicians, to extract the highest gain from all these for the growth of their political career. Greater portion of the rural public are submerged in the opium and illusion of 'development' through Free Schemes. Government is now almost successful in creating a huge segment of greedy beneficiaries who have stopped working for earning and drowned in antisocial acts. People are tried to make forget the real dangerous issues of the state- the scams of the politicians and their families plus supporters, the huge deforestation by the Government, the border conflict with neighbour states, corruption everywhere, depression and frustration among youths, etc. And no problem if someones raises their voice, just mark them as 'anti-national' and arrest or jail him/her. Almost no judiciary is there to question their acts.