http://www.assamtribune.com/oct0806/at02.html
Nehru favoured flow of migrants to NE By Prabal Kr Das GUWAHATI, Oct 7 â âThe refugee problem is one of the two or three problems to which we give first priority in India at present. This applies to the utilisation of our financial resources also. Our development schemes are thought of in terms, to some extent, of refugees. If Assam adopts an attitude of incapacity to help in solving the refugee problem, then the claims of Assam for financial help obviously suffer.â The peculiar pro quid pro finds mention in a letter written to former State Chief Minister, the late Gopinath Bardoloi by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. The communication to Bordoloi dated New Delhi, May 18, 1949 and bearing number 413 âP.M. was in response to a letter the Assam Chief Minister had written on May 7 that year. The letter was found among the dossiers belonging to the eminent politician late Gauri Shankar Bhattacharya, who shared close ties with Bardoloi. Handing it over to The Assam Tribune today, his son Siddhartha Bhattacharya, senior lawyer at the Guwahati High Court, attested its authenticity. Apart from linking financial flow to the issue of refugees, Nehru in his two-page correspondence expresses his surprise that Bardoloi was finding it difficult to deal âwith influx of Muslims into Assam.â He then becomes somewhat tentative and says, âI do not think there is a permit system in regard to Eastern Bengal and Western Bengal and possibly no such system exists in regard to Assam either.â Later, Nehru hints at devising ways and means to deal with it. In his letter Nehru takes note of Bardoloiâs belief that dearth of land in his state was an issue, and contends that if availability of land was a problem in Assam, âit is still less available in the rest of India which is very heavily populated, barring the deserts and mountains.â Nehruâs posture is in stark contrast to Bardoloiâs concern in protecting the interest of his State when the Chief Minister is asked, âWhere are these [refugees] to go if each Province adopts the attitude that Assam apparently has done?â Subsequently, the Prime Minister makes his position clearer on the issue and states what appears like words of finality â âTherefore, we have to absorb them and make provision for them so that they might be good citizens. In doing this all provinces have to help and cooperate and it will do no good to a province to refuse cooperation in the national work.â Nehru took exception to the stance of one minister of Bardoloiâs Cabinet, âI understand that Medhi, your Finance minister, is a strong opponent of any further refugees coming to Assam. I think he is wrong in this.â >From the letter it becomes patently obvious that Nehru favoured Assam to act as host to refugees flowing in from erstwhile East Pakistan. Some other parts of the letter highlight corresponding views approving an easy acceptance of migrants flowing into the region. On the other hand, Gopinath Bardoloiâs concerns revealed a deeper understanding of contemporary reality. In retrospect, no less manifest is the fact that what once was perceived as ânational workâ by a statesmanlike figure has now become the root cause of a grave problem afflicting the State. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com _______________________________________________ assam mailing list [email protected] http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
