Tag Archives: Assam Accord

Democracy, Everyday Life, Identities, Politics, Right watch

Stop This Insanity in the Name of Patriotism: Axom Nagarik Samaj

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Statement by AXOM NAGARIK SAMAJ on the targeting of minorities today

Are we witnessing a textbook case of fascist tendencies being practised in Assam? How long can a section of religious minorities will be subjected to all kinds of atrocities and humiliation by branding them as Bangladeshi foreigners? They are being harassed and humiliated all the time. We have been told time and again that they are the cause of all our evils and they are a threat to our existence. How can the victims turn into victors? What a classic case of distorted logic.

We had a six-year-long Assam movement to get rid of the Bangladeshi foreigners. Then overnight AASU turned into AGP and ruled Assam for ten long years. Thereafter came  the Congress government which ruled Assam for 15 years when the present chief minister was in charge of the implementation of the Assam Accord. Then there was that famous declaration of Modi that all Bangladeshi foreigners would have to leave Assam with their baggage by 16 May, 2014. Now the BJP has been in power for the last 10 years. Nothing happened. Instead, the CAA was brought in to grant citizenship to a section of linguistic minorities. Come any elections, blame the religious minorities and do all kinds of nasty things to them and use them to win the votes of the majority community. The brandishing a particular religion as a threat and criminalizing the religious minorities has become a well-known tactic of the Hindutva brigade. Now they are going to issue weapons to the indigenous people against the religious minorities. Have we seen any civil war-like situation anywhere in Assam? Then why do you have to do this? Why promote this communal hatred and create tension among the common people? It is heartening that the people in Assam have generally maintained peace, except for a few minor incidents here and there, and have remained calm while maintaining amity among themselves everywhere in the state.

We appeal to all right-thinking people including the Opposition political parties and civil society organizations to condemn and oppose this nefarious design of the ruling combine. 

Ajit Kumar Bhuyan, President Paresh Malakar, General Secretary

Axom Nagarik Samaj

Countryside, Identities, Violence/Conflict

Adivasis in Assam – Extermination without a Camp: Suraj Gogoi and Prasenjit Biswas

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Guest Post by SURAJ GOGOI AND PRASENJIT BISWAS

Repeated genocides in Assam and justification and rationalization of the same can be seen as the severest form of crime against humanity that one can imagine. It is the most reprehensible form of hatred that is committed and perpetually pushed under the carpet. Located in the foothills of Bhutan, the villages where 81 or so Adivasi persons were exterminated in the recent killings by the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (Songbijit faction) is no less than a genocide. Apparently the motive for such killing is attributed to Adivasi villagers helping the army and police in busting camps of Bodo militants. Seemingly they turn out to be the easy targets for insurgent firepower.

The adivasis, therefore, remain in a state of being exterminated. If camps mark the predicament of a modern fragmented society, one might say that the Adivasis are permanently thrown into shelters and camps as internally displaced. An estimated 2.75 lakh people of Adivasi origin are settled in about 250 camps across Udalguri and Chirang. They are decamped before the act of being camped and by the very act of remaining in the state of being camped they are rightless and defenseless. Herein we find a sense of perennial othering which subverts any democratic attempt to empower them with right and dignity. They are othered in a state of displacement and pushed form their settlements to an uncertain destiny. This continual displacement completes the fate of marginality. The process marks an inner othering of the marginalized that actualizes fragmentation of mainstream social identities of Assam. Continue reading Adivasis in Assam – Extermination without a Camp: Suraj Gogoi and Prasenjit Biswas →