[Assam] Kingdom of Assam had 0.001% of Muslim. Islamic Agenda succeeding, today's 30%.

[Bartta Bistar]

Rewrite the accord http://www.dailypioneer.com/indexn12.asp?main_variable=EDITS&file_name=edit4%2Etxt&counter_img=4

N Jamal Ansari Apropos Mr Upamanyu Hazarika's article, "Declare Emergency in Assam" (August 18), in which the writer says that the Centre can issue a proclamation under Article 352 of the Constitution, declaring Emergency in the State and implement the provisions of Assam Accord of August 15, 1985.

The writer has overlooked the fact that the Assam Accord was not a result of concern for the Assamese, but essentially a product of dirty politics of the 1980s.

The Assam movement, which was launched by the All Assam Students Union and the Assam Gana Sangram Parishad, has its roots in the past. "This movement was the continuation of the movement for a university in Assam during the period of freedom struggle and for an oil refinery and official language in the post-independent period."

(Gohain Hiren, Assam: A Burning Question, p 36) The movement was also concerned with the assimilation of Bengali- speaking Hindus, forcing them to accept Assamese as their language.

The people of Assam lived in peaceful coexistence till the entry of the forces of Hindutva in the State. The RSS's policy was spelt out at the organisation's national council meeting at Nagpur, where it was resolved that the identity of different groups in Assam could be preserved only if the State remained predominantly Hindu.

The RSS demanded that "Hindu refugees settled in the State should not be dubbed as foreigners" (Diwan Vijay Kumar, Assam Issue: The Beginning, the End and the Beginning, p 40). Professor Hiren Gohain wrote: "If the RSS is allowed to play its game in this way, the spread of the RSS influence will jeopardise the survival of genuine Muslims."

Muslim settlement in Assam can be traced back to 1206, when the Turks were defeated at Kamrup. In 1257, Tugil Khan again attacked Kamrup and built the first ever mosque in North Kamrup. The credit for preaching Islam in Assam goes to Asam Fakir who came from Baghdad in 1635.

The immigration of Muslims continued in several ways. Ahom Kings imported weavers and in 1874 Lord North Brook sent Muslims to carry on the administration.

The Assam Accord has some very dangerous implications for the linguistic and religious minorities of the State, particularly Muslims. The Congress has played a game with Muslims by arriving at this agreement.

If the Congress is sincere in its concern for the minorities, it must declare that no part of India is the exclusive homeland of any ethnic, linguistic or religious group.

Experience shows that the implementation of this Accord has brought with it a chain of atrocities against poor and illiterate Muslim Bengalis. They are being deprived of their cultural and linguistic identity. However, the RSS openly says that Bangladeshi Hindus should not be deported.

A report in The Statesman (April 29, 2002) reads: "Manmohan Samal, MP and State president of the BJP, has called for Mr LK Advani's (then Home Minister) intervention in stopping deportation of Bangladeshi Hindus and further demanded that settlers should be treated as refugees and not as infiltrators."

The Accord has created more problems than it has solved. The only section of the population of Assam which gives secure is the upper caste Hindus. No one opposes deportation of foreigners.

But in the name of throwing out foreigners, other goals must not be made to serve. There is still time to give fresh thought and re-write of the Accord in the interest of Assam.

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