New Delhi, Apr 3 : Outwardly secular, politics in India is all about vote banks and keeping a party in power. No wonder the problem of infiltration of illegal migrants remains unresolved, threatening to snowball into major crisis, say intellectuals from the Northeast.
‘Voice of Assam,’ a collection of writings of 25 distinguished litterateurs fear a situation was developing which may lead to a major ethnic conflagration.
As a result of infiltration “few districts of Upper Assam coming together and raising a demand for another separate state free from the domination of Muslims fundamentalists, cannot be ruled out,” says the book.
The writers warn that unabated infiltration of illegal Bangladeshi migrants is turning the secular society of Northeast being divided into “religious, linguistic and tribal segments at the state and administrative levels, ostensible on the ground of opposing secessionism and aversion to party politics.”
The book blames the vote-bank politics, both at the regional level and at the Centre, for the situation.
“Each political party of the state, national or regional, has fallen victim to the ‘vote-bank’ politics which has so far proved to be the main hurdle against fighting the ever-growing menace of infiltration,” says the book ‘Voice of Assam,’ edited by Satish Chandra Chowdhury and Harendra Kalita.
The problem is likely to overwhelm the entire Northeast and her indigenous people in not too far distant a future, it warns.
The book also alleged Pakistan and China of conspiracy to “destabilise” the situation of Northeast, as well as to “convert it into a Muslim majority area”.
During the Chinese aggression of 1962, Pakistani flag was hoisted in quite a few places in central Assam with the slogan-’Pakistan Zindabad’, thereby sending an unmistakable and inauspicious message which, alarmed New Delhi for the first time.
As a result, at the instance of the legendary figure of the Indian police, late B N Mallick, the Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan (PIP)scheme was introduced in 1964 with a view to detect and deport the Pakistani infiltrators, it says. “ISI and its fundamentalist complements are now directing their full force to grab the Northeast,” says one chapter in the book.
“There are reasons to believe that the activities of the ISI and some of the secessionist outfits, are being remotely orchestrated by China. In the present context, physical conquest of the Northeast may not be a viable proposition for China but that should not mean that she had given up her designs over this area of the country.”
It is indeed significant that China’s map including Arunachal and a part of Assam, is not known to have been withdrawn or revised by her. China’s role in training and arming the Naga and the Mizo rebels is also no more a secret, says the book. The book says, “Even from the economic point of view, China is presenting threat to the small scale industries sector of the Northeast.”
“China has been flooding the markets of the Northeastern state with cheap available consumer goods-particularly electronic appliances. Such availability of consumer goods at unbelievably cheap rates, has amounted to dealing a severe blow to the SSI sectors of the entire Northeast.”
Bureau Report
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