The Shillong Times

BJP Should not Misread the Assam Victory

PUBLIC | FRIDAY, MAY 20, 2016

Shar

By Jyotirmoy Prodhani

In the wake of the unprecedented victory of the BJP and its allies, being overexcited, if it allows the elements like Yogi Adityanath or Girirarj Singh types to open their shops in Assam, it will be a costly mistake on its part. One must be clear about the fact that in Assam the voters are least bothered about the Hinduvta variety of politics that many in the BJP consider as the only source of their oxygen. Though cow is intrinsic to the cultural rite and roots of Assam, nobody voted to save the ‘gomata’, nor are they sentimental about the ‘mahan Bhartiya Parampara’ or the ‘shuddh Hindi Bhasha.’ On the contrary, quite paradoxically, it is a vote against all this, and more importantly, against communalism. Despite the constant efforts by a section of the intelligentsia in Assam to project the BJP and its allies in Assam as the vicious network of rabid communalism, clearly enough, the people at large were not convinced.

BJP and its allies, which included, apart from the AGP, the political outfits of the Bodos, the Tiwas and the Rabhas, have won because people wanted an end to an arrogant regime. Despite the obvious anomalies, the Congress government was in denial mode. After Himanta Biswa Sarma left Health and Education portfolios, the two departments quickly went to the docks. Gauhati Medical College Hospital that was competing with the high end private hospitals soon came back to square one as well as all other government hospitals in the state. NRHM in Assam, which had one of the most efficient managements in the country, virtually disappeared post Himanta Biswa Sarma. The rural health scenario was the worst affected.

In the education sector the new minister, Mr Sarat Borkotoky, showed his legendary inefficiency by stopping the TET examinations and clean appointments, rather he was more interested to retrieve some ancient government orders to gag the entire teaching community of the state. As for holding high school final examinations during his regime, which is one of the most important responsibilities under his ministry, answer scripts in thousands were either eaten away by cattle or gutted in fire. And corruption in recruitment made a resounding comeback!

Under Rockybul Hussain as the Forest Minister the killing of rhinos and the plundering of the forest resources were at their peak. Massive deforestation and encroachment of the reserved forests became routine. Not a word of regret was ever uttered by the government, instead Tarun Gogoi had tacitly encouraged poaching when he had made that infamous anthropocene remark accusing people of showing undue concern at the death of wild beasts and not showing similar emotion for humans (meaning the illegal settlers in the notified forest lands).

People had voted against such horrific indifferences to the seeping inefficiency, rampant corruption and mindless destruction of Assam’s ecology. It would again be a gross misreading to assume that only ‘Hindus’ had voted for the BJP and the Muslims had distributed their votes between the Congress and the AIUDF. BJP got the votes as a result of a resurgent ethnic collaboration, which included, inter alia, various ethnic communities of the state including the Ahoms, the Koch Rajbanshis, the Gorkhalis, the Adivsis, the Kalitas, the Assamese Sikh community, the Christians, the Bengalis, the Buddhists and other linguistic minorities, and of course the numerous tribal communities and so on and so forth and also, it must be noted, a large section of the Muslim community. The indigenous Muslims like the Gariya Marias and the Desi Muslims, like any other average Assamese individual, are hardly preoccupied with their religious identity. In fact, they see BJP in Assam as a mere political party like any other party, hence they are least bothered about it as a threat, as some observers would like to believe it, for these people are very much rooted and integral to the larger Assamese ethos of the state.

BJP will commit a grave error if they harp on the illegal immigration from Bangladesh in an accent suitable for election hooting and not at all desirable from the ones that have gained the mandate to govern, though they must take rational steps to solve the issue. A section of the Assam intelligentsia would quite uncritically lament it in their pet term as the rise of the ‘the communal forces’ or the ‘arrival of the fascists’ etc. but such interpretations, apart from having some legitimacy in the left literatures, would not necessarily be reflective of the ground realities. The people that have voted this alliance to power, by any stretch of left rhetoric, are not the epitome of communal politics in the state. Instead it is the other way round. That it was against communal politics has been well reflected by the fact that in many constituencies, where the Muslims are a majority, the BJP and its allies have won from the constituencies like Bilasipara East in lower Assam etc.

What has turned out to be the most significant in this election is that it is the Muslim voters who have rejected, in a decisive manner, the diabolic communal politics so viciously promoted by the Attar merchant Maulana Badruddin Ajmal of AIUDF. The people of South Salmara in Manikachar, a border district of Assam with absolute Muslim majority, have shown their extraordinary tenacity and determination to frustrate the design of the merchant of communal politics in Assam by rejecting him outright through a massive mandate. They have chosen a native Congress leader, Wajed Ali Choudhury, and discarded the one who had migrated to the constituency thinking that his vitriolic communal rhetoric and promotion of medieval superstitions and subjugations would be enough to wrest the Muslim majority seat in the border district. This ignominious defeat of Maulana Badhruddin should be the biggest lesson for the BJP that the people Assam, irrespective of their religion, caste and creed, are potentially capable of destroying the very foundation of the designs that is primarily predicated upon the ugly fangs of communal politics.

Nevertheless, one cannot miss the fact that for the first time in the history of Assam a leader belonging to a marginal tribal community, the Sonowal Kacharis, would lead the government. He would be the first tribal Chief Minister of Assam. For this reason alone, BJP deserved to win this election. The writer is Professor, Dept of English, NEHU, Shillong.

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