After Modi & Yogi, it's Shah & Nadda distorting Assam’s political history

GUWAHATI: Call it deliberate overlooking of facts or ignorance, the BJP central leadership seems to be all out to rewrite Assam’s political history.

After Yogi Adityanath said Srimanta Sankardeva had cautioned the Congress against possible influx from foreign countries and Prime Minister Narendra Modi described Lachit Borphukan as freedom fighter, it’s the turn of Union home minister Amit Shah to claim that there was no agitation or casualty during the BJP rule in Assam over the past five years.

BJP national chief JP Nadda also did not lag behind the others to claim that the Bodoland movement was 50-year-long.

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Shah has been claiming over the past few weeks that the BJP government has made Assam free from agitations.

“There was a time when Assam was known for agitations and unrest. After the BJP came to power, the Sarbananda Sonowal government ensured that the culture of agitations is done away with in Assam. Assam now looks forward only to peace and progress,” Shah reiterated today at a rally in Udalguri.

He apparently tried to overlook the fact that Assam burned and at least five persons lost their lives in police firing during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act protests in 2019-20. The state witnessed large-scale protests, arson and curfew during the agitation.

Several organisations, including the influential All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), have still be staging protests against the Act. At least two new political parties are in the fray of the Assam assembly elections this time due to the agitation.

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There were also protests against eviction of forest lands in Kaziranga National Park and other parts of the state. According to Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti that spearheaded the agitation, even pregnant women were not spared from police baton charge in those protests.

The BJP leadership often claim credit for the eviction of encroahers from Kaziranga, but never speak about the human right violations committed during those eviction drives. The BJP leadership often try to brand the encroachers as illegal infiltrators, but have never spoken about steps taken to ascertain their citizenship or to deport them.

On the other hand, Nadda today said the Bodo belt had been witnessing violence for the last 50 years till the BJP government worked out the Bodo settlement last year to bring about an end to the violence and unrest.

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“The Bodo militancy was there for 50 years and the Congress never tried to settle the political issue. Thousands of people died. This included at least 4000 security personnel who lost their lives fighting insurgency in the Bodo belt. The BJP government restored peace in the region by signing a historic treaty with the Bodo militants that was also acceptable for Assam’s territorial integrity. Thousands have laid down arms. Thousands of assault rifles were surrendered,” Nadda said campaigning for various candidates in different parts of Assam today.

The Bodoland movement started in 1987 led by the All Bodo Students’ Union and lasted for 33 years. It was followed by armed struggle in subsequent times.

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The Congress had earlier settled for an accord with the Bodoland Liberation Tigers in 2003 giving birth to the Bodoland Territorial Council and Bodoland Territorial Area Districts (BTAD). The Modi government later on refined the earlier accord with the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) for a second Bodo Accord in 2020 under BTAD was renamed as Bodoland Territorial Region.

Disappointed by the refined agreement, a section of former NDFB leaders and cadres are stated to have returned to the jungles to wage another war against the state, confirms Assam Police.