#AssamRejectsCAB - How BJP is being blind in its vote consolidation strategy?

In 1984, when BJP was reduced to 4 seats, it was a huge setback and that gave rise to the strategy of Hindu consolidation by hook or by crook. By 1985, the plan was finalised.

Right from the Advani Rath Yatra that killed ordinary citizens in thousands (ably opposed by Lalu Prasad Yadav - https://youtu.be/W7XRvjYQOaI) and destroyed a mosque; the same strategy is in the works regarding citizenship related amendments. All these steps were not to build a nation. It was to consolidate the majority votes for the BJP at any cost. Assam is a negligible cost for the BJP in its overall scheme of things for power in the centre.

BJP started meddling in with citizenship in 2015 when they silently amended the passport act and the foreigners act. Only Tarun Gogoi spoke against it - https://m.economictimes.com/…/mha-…/articleshow/49430646.cms) at that time. The amendments in the passport act of 1950 and Foreigners Order of 1948 said that the same religions that are mentioned in CAB from the same countries as mentioned in CAB would not be considered illegal migrants even if they don’t posses valid documents to enter or stay in India.

Sadly the public didn’t realise the unconstitutionality of the amendments then. The point to note is that if NRC didn’t take place in Assam (thankfully for Assam Accord, AASU and the Congress), which listed the 19 lakhs as alleged foreigners, the real illegal migrants of the six religions would not be illegal at all. Only because of the NRC, the illegal Hindu migrants in Assam are now deemed illegal once again. The 2015 amendments were very powerfully against the constitution, and against Assam and the Northeast.

CAB was therefore brought in to give citizenship which the 2015 amendments couldn’t. We all know that CAB is unconstitutional because it discriminated against Islam, just like the 2015 amendments. It doesn’t matter because it is part of the 1985 strategy to consolidate the Brahmins, upper caste Hindus and Hindus in general primarily in the Hindu belt and if possible the south. The newer agenda is also to woo the Hindu Bengali voters in WB and NE.

Surely, BJP has been successful politically in their strategy of consolidation along with their development - Vikas agenda. However, I think these amendments are short term bigoted thinking. Also quite naive and stupid. When you are bigoted, you simply cannot be rational and long term. For instance, Amit Shah calling for NRC across India simply makes their 2015 amendments useless. One reason perhaps is also that BJP forgot about the 2015 passport and foreigner amendments because they didn’t give the expected political dividend and news coverage. If the latter is true then it is even more dangerous. CAB similarly is useless because there is no way anybody can prove persecution in their application of citizenship.

The conviction of putting an useless bill when India is suffering from hundreds of other serious problems is the most dangerous of all. The agenda of polarisation is making BJP blind and stupid. In terms of an Intelligence bureau report, only around 11000 people may benefit from CAB. How would anyone prove that he was from Bangladesh and that he was persecuted?

Coming back to Assam, and NE the current protests are natural and logical. Assam has seen language agitation, foreigner agitation from over a century. Initially, British imposed Bengali as the official language of the NE and ASSAM because they had brought Bengali working class to Assam to work for their administration of the region, and the railways. After prolonged agitation, we got Assamese back as our language. However the anger against the Bengalis remained in the insides of our psyche.

Then came the foreigner agitation. Cachar district which initially had indigenous population became a Bengali majority district. Muslim immigration also have changed demographic identity of a few districts. Therefore, the foreigner agitation of 1980s were not religious and bidekhi meant all foreigners. Because of the secular nature of the protest and the rationality therefore, the Congress govt signed the Assam Accord of 1985.

Assam Accord was a huge success for Indian federalism and Assamese pride. The NRC process which is done only for Assam is also a huge matter of pride for the indigenous Assamese.

CAB by the BJP has made both the ASSAM Accord and NRC irrelevant. It left Assam no reason to control their emotions anymore. I will also come out in protest. BJP has showed complete disregard for Assamese pride. First, it gave land to Bangladesh when it promised otherwise. Then they took away the 15000 crore NE economic stimulus package. And the carelessness continued. CAB was the nail in the coffin of promises made by the BJP.

Street protests, closure of offices, businesses will now be the norm. Sadly, lives may be lost, anarchy will prevail and the unscrupulous will try to make hey. The poor economy will become poorer. Poverty will increase.

BJP is squarely to be blamed for this chaos. Their strategy of harmless consolidation in 1985 (even Advani didn’t think there will be so many deaths) has become very dangerously bigoted consolidation, and the end is not near. BJP has crossed the fine line of decency and will stoop to any level to keep their political calculations in their favour, and so the end is not near.

I appeal to everyone to protest peacefully and let the Govt understand the power of nonviolent protest taught to us by the Mahatma.

Here is a beautiful protest song that has from the anger and frustrations of the Assamese.
https://youtu.be/8kpU3HrBuTg

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