Situation in Assam not like J K, says NPP

National Panther Party chairman and a member of National Integration Council , Prof Bhim Singh, who recently made a hectic three day visit to conflict torn districts of Kokrajhar and Dhubri in Assam, bordering Bangladesh, has said that the situation in Assam is not like Jammu and Kashmir as observed by certain leaders in the country.

Addressing the media persons at the Guwahati Press Club on 2nd August last he urged the Central government to intervene in Assam to restore peace, communal harmony with return and rehabilitation of about four lakh displaced Bodo and Muslim migrants, in the interest of National security and human dignity.
During his visit to some migrant camps in the districts of Kokrajhar and Dhubri, the National Panther Party team experienced that the situation in the bordering areas of Assam was very serious and sensitive. These problems were neither communal nor religious off shoot. These problems related to decade back, which were not seriously taken by the Central leadership and no efforts was made to nip the evil in the beginning. Prof Singh said that the recent problem was not isolated from mass illegal migration from bordering Bangladesh as both the Bodos and the Muslims have been living in peace and harmony and there was no sign of communal cause of conflict.

He further said that there were about two lakh Bodo migrants camping in the unorganized camps mostly in government buildings and schools. The Bodos, who met him felt insecure in their villages where they had been living for the years in peace with their Muslim brethrens. Several Bodos in the camp complained that they had been threatened by the outsiders who had been migrating from across the border. His team also witnessed several burnt houses of the Bodos in the area.

The Muslim migrants were camping in mostly schools buildings of Dhubri district. The National Panther Party team was informed that the borders with Bangladesh at Dhubri along River Brahmaputra was porous to infiltrators. Serious complaints were received that the local administration did not take strong measurers to check infiltration of the poverty stricken Bangladeshi nationals, who had been entering Assam through Dhubri district to find shelter here.

Prof Bhim Singh said that the hard solution to the situation lied in the implementation of Assam Accord of 1985 signed between the Rajiv Gandhi government, State and Assam movement leaders. If the National Registration of Citizenship (NRC) was upgraded, infiltration from Bangladesh stopped there would have been a different situation in Assam today, he said.

The National Panther Party chief said that he would prepare an exclusive report for the Prime Minister on the situation, so that the PM convene a meeting of the National Integration Council (NIC) on the resolution of the situation in Assam with active participation of all the political groups and parties of Assam. This would help strengthening National integration. He also said that comparing the situation of Assam with Jammu & Kashmir is not correct. In Jammu & Kashmir no outsider could enter and seek Nationality since the year 1927. In 1927 Maharaja Hari Singh enacted a law under which no outsider could be registered as resident of J & K. But in Assam the situation is totally different. The tragedy began with the partition of India, when Bengal was divided least caring for the history for the next generations and its consequences, he added.