A hut constructed by evicted families

The post Photo Feature: Evicted villagers struggle to rebuild lives in Dhalpur appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Allow me to say that there is a prevailing confusion in the metropolitan press about the ethnic situation in Assam. Assamese chauvinists compound it with their folly, and Bengali chauvinists do the same with their closed minds.      

Is there such a thing as indigeneity relevant to Assam? I dare say there is. The indigenes of Assam are descendants of the inhabitants of old Assam, and that part of Barak Valley ruled by Cacharee kings before the British occupied and integrated the region with the rest of India. Assam was never a part of
the different Indian empires, from the Mauryan and the Gupta empires down to the Mughal empire. Like Nepal its culture formed part of the broad and variegated Indian culture, but socially and politically it had a different identity.       

Civil war, Burmese occupation for over two decades, and epidemics had depleted native population and the new colonial rulers allowed a huge influx of population from other parts of India to use this new acquisition to their profit. Migration was necessary to restore the economy and some sort of order. But the British were not benevolent guests. Under British patronage, migrant, by and large, forged ahead of natives, particularly owing to their better acquaintance with modern ideas and skills. But it is quite obvious that the advantage had been a product of colonial management and by no means fair competition on a level playing field.       

Modern education and the freedom movement to some extent narrowed the gap, but the unease remained. Following independence, owing to belated development and benign neglect by the central government the gap remained, as well as the sense of deprivation. Assamese chauvinism arose out of this stagnation and disempowerment, and was fuelled by patronage of different governments in Delhi. This is a dangerous shortcut, and has been used with cunning by different pan-Indian parties.

But that does not mean that the natives have been the oppressors and migrants the victims. Enlightened, democratic sections of Assam have NOT cheered on gunning down of alleged encroachers, and the BJP is today posing as the saviour of the native Assamese and stoking communal chauvinism.       

The char areas or large sandbanks, some more stable than the rest, appear on various parts of the Brahmaputra, a far bigger and more turbulent river than the Ganga, and in olden days native Assamese used to grow Ravi crops there in winter. Since the great earthquake of 1950 it has become even more
turbulent and wayward. Immigrant Muslim population was originally confined to Western Assam, but in the last few decades frequent erosions and wholesale disappearance of numerous villages in the swelling rivers have forced immigrant Muslims to come upstream and settle in chars that were left unoccupied and uncultivated in winter.      

This has caused simmering anger and heart-burning among people of native origin. It is also an unmistakable reality that there are lakhs of poor landless people among native Assamese too. BJP has predictably used this opportunity to turn the embers into a blaze.     

Consider for a moment what was the crying necessity to evict thousands of families settled in some chars for forty to fifty years in military-type operations? 

Their ringing calls are first, “free Assam’s land from foreigners” for home consumption, and “develop the land for modern agriculture”, in a disguised campaign to make hundreds of acres of land available for Indian corporates eager to poach on such land these days.       

So, the ruckus about Bengali and Muslim victims of Assamese xenophobia had better be put in clearer perspective rather than clench one’s teeth and foam in the mouth against phantom enemies. Assamese chauvinism is only a bit-player in this Armageddon.

Post script:

People who do not know the history of this region had better digest one genuine historical fact. No one in his senses can deny the secular credentials of the Communist Party of India. The Assam provincial committee of the All India Krishak Sabha, an organisation under CPI influence which had both Assamese and Bengali members, shared the indigenous people’s anxiety at the unprecedented and enormous influx of Muslim peasants from Eastern Bengal to Assam as planned and promoted by the British colonial government and the stridently communal Muslim League, and passed a resolution in its open session at the provincial conference in 1945 expressing deep concern at it.

It shows that this influx which drastically altered the population pattern of the province in just two decades and planted the seed of long-standing division and conflict had been no figment of frenzied Assamese imagination. The challenge today is to redirect the people’s ideas and energies towards peaceful reconciliation and unity.

*The author is a highly respected Assamese intellectual, a literary critic and social-scientist from Assam. Views expressed are the author’s own. 

Other pieces by Dr. Hiren Gohain: 

Atrocity as Mode of Governance

Mumbo-Jumbo will Voodoo you!

The Spectre of Opposition Unity

The UAPA noose 

The riddle of ‘Elected Autocracy’ 

Riddle of Assam elections 

The post Ethnicity and Migration: The Assam Story appeared first on SabrangIndia.

All that is left after the demolitions

Rubble piled up in a corner

There used to be a hut here

A village struggles amidst its ruins

Police Shooting victim Moinul Hoque’s widow and children

Police Shooting victim Moinul Hoque’s parents

A widow stays strong amidst grief

Sheikh Forid’s mother living every parent’s greatest fear – outliving one’s child

She soldiers on, fetching water for her family

The post Images from Dhalpur: A photo feature showcasing the struggles of evicted families appeared first on SabrangIndia.

People squirm in unease when I refer to the legacy of Nazism while discussing present proponents of Hindutva. But once one sets aside quibbles, the mindset of both camps cannot fail to strike one with their remarkable likeness.

The fundamental generic unity lies in their deep discomfort with any strand of thought, culture or language that does not agree with their paradigm of nationhood. Only purity in their eyes bestows legitimacy and stature, and therefore anything indigestible to it becomes a besetting obstacle haunting their dreams. So, Hitler thought of the Final Solution. One fears, the logic of their assumptions also pushes advocates of Hindutva in the same direction.

The attempt at purification takes the form of repeated pogroms and atrocities. These are planned thoughtfully and executed with dispatch and resolve. The consequences are met with excuses and arguments thought out well ahead. The strikes are sudden, indeed ‘surgical’, as it goes in the parlance of the tribe.

Closely linked to it are such flanking attacks as on land and livelihood. Once the targets are deprived of both they lose their ability to survive.

The eviction drive in Assam at present has assumed such a character.

The immigrant Muslims of Assam have been, for the greater part of their history, a riparian population. The river has been an extremely turbulent one, especially since the great earthquake of 1950, and heedless incremental building of embankments to contain its fury have resulted in massive breaches and erosions engulfing entire villages at times. The consequence has been the unavoidable movement of victims of erosion up the river’s length to find new shelters. They have thus spread farther up North. But both, sheer ignorance of such facts and entrenched bias, have turned this migration into an ‘alien invasion’ of sorts. The previous governments just looked away, hoping that things would settle down in due course. But the present government finds in it an opportunity to sate its thirst for purity and meet the demands of its overseas allies. Incidentally, both talk peace while planning endless wars.

In the campaign for the 2016 elections, Himanta Biswa Sarma worked like a demon, both to win seats for his newly adopted party and prove his loyalty to its creed by unreservedly driving a communal campaign. It was a clash of civilizations, nothing less, that must be won putting the party in power. He has not since relented in spreading the message of imminent peril from presence of aliens.

Soon after assuming office, he called for an ‘historic’ meeting of minds with ‘Muslim intellectuals’. However, as it turned out, only Muslims of indigenous origin were invited. Some such ‘local’ Muslim leader expressed gratification at the opportunity, though the occasion was only a crafty method of acquiring some legitimacy and some sort of secular legal justification. We are not against Muslims, the message went, but we shall have no mercy against ‘illegal migrants’.

And now the real motive has been uncorked. The Chief Minister of a state may come from a party, but he is supposed to protect life and liberty of all citizens without discrimination. A Chief Minister abdicating this constitutional responsibility is behaving strangely. He has vowed to ‘free’ the land of the state from the clutches of illegal migrants, foreign infiltrators and, resoundingly, ‘from the clutches of the enemies of Assamese nationality’. He pleads that without securing the land of temples and ‘sattras’ (Vaishnav monasteries) which have been regarded as the iconic centers of Assamese culture, Assamese nationality cannot be saved from extinction. But there are many tribes in Assam who owe no loyalty to these centers, and people from lower castes were once treated with utter scorn and demeaning disrespect by many of these ‘sattras’. Besides with the progress of modern ideas of equality and the rebellion of the undertrodden, who cared more for education and dignity, many had fallen into decay and oblivion. Now there is a concerted and determined drive from above to revive both them and a religious fervour of social and spiritual servitude. Large sums are being given away to them and religious ceremonies now have open backing of the government. But these are not enough to reclaim land lost to ordinary benighted people long ago.

The time for such forcible and selective reclamation may come, but the present eviction drive is to free government land.

It has unfortunately not been a serious concern of jurisprudence in India as to who owns the land since the departure of colonial masters. The government is a transient authority, but the State does not exist above the people. And it is the people who institute and constitute the State, not authorities delegated with the power of the people. Hence why should not the people, other things being equal, have a prior claim on the land?

One hackneyed argument with the ruling camp is that those evicted are ‘illegal migrants’. How is that proved? Do their names not occur on the NRC? In fact, one reason the NRC in Assam is being put in cold storage in spite of the Supreme Court’s brusque dismissal of the newly appointed pro-saffron coordinator’s concocted complaints against it, is that the hollowness of these unfounded allegations might be exposed. (This is the basic reasons why some of us have stood by an Assam-specific NRC in the teeth of attacks, as a safeguard for all citizens including immigrant origin Muslims).

Democratic, progressive path-finders of Assamese nationality from the 19th century downwards like Bezbaroah, Jyoti Prasad, Bishnu Rabha and Bhupen Hazarika have urged upon unity as the key to the survival of the Assamese nationality, and they have specifically stressed inclusion of the ‘new Assamese’, immigrant Muslims. The spokesmen of the government have specifically excluded them from their concept.

I have long held the view that the gory excesses of the Assam Movement (1978-85) were the results of secret infiltration of saffron activists in its ranks. As a survivor of those eventful days, I seem to sense the renewal of the same distracted passions. Indeed, there are disturbing recalls in local press about the martyrdom of eleven Assamese youths in the disputed area. Actually those were unfortunate results of clashes between two communities fomented by such demented propaganda. No one talks about casualties on the other side.

The government is now talking in two voices. Perhaps because some people are not convinced of its case. On the one hand, it says it is willing to give the ousted people land elsewhere (no one knows if one can grow rice there), and on the other hand, it says they absolutely have no claim at all. Now there is the excuse that ‘ten thousand’ Muslims armed with lathis and spears (Chief Minister), ‘six thousand’ according to his close comrade Pijush Hazarika, had rushed at the police party and the police fired in self-defence. But at the time of the incident no TV channel covering it live, nor any newspaper next day carried any footage of such a huge assault. A dangerous lie blown out of all proportion; one is inclined to believe.

The trend of events in future appears to be continuation of more such eviction campaigns, which the CM has sworn by, more unrest and tension and division, and the perpetuation of an atmosphere of distrust, fear and hatred, unless the general public all over the country and the courts call a halt. In the process, the police are certain to get more brutal, as in UP, and common citizens left at the mercy of the ruling cliques. The opposition has raised strong protests, but has not called it out on one voice.

*The author is a highly respected Assamese intellectual, a literary critic and social-scientist from Assam. Views expressed are the author’s own. 

Other pieces by Dr. Hiren Gohain: 

Atrocity as Mode of Governance

Mumbo-Jumbo will Voodoo you! 

The Spectre of Opposition Unity 

The UAPA noose 

The riddle of ‘Elected Autocracy’ 

Riddle of Assam elections 

The post Final Solutions appeared first on SabrangIndia.

A delegation led by the Communist Party of India (Marxist-Leninist) Liberation visited the site of the Assam Police Firing in Dhalpur and has made several shocking discoveries and pertinent observations. The team comprised Politburo member Kavita Krishnan, CPIML MLA from Bihar Comrade Rambali Singh Yadav, Central Committee member and Karnataka secretary Clifton D’Rozario, Central Committee member and Assam State Committed member Balindra Saikia. They are accompanied by Bihar youth activist Ravi Ranjan, AIKS leader Jayanta Gogoi, Jipal Krishok Sromik Sangha leader Pranab Doley , Sangrami Krishok Sromik Sangha leaders  Dinesh Das and Jehirul Islam.

Together, they visited the family of Moinul Hoque, the 28-year-old man, the video of whose brutal killing went viral. The horrific video showcased how police showered in bullets a man wielding a stick, and then as he lay motionless on the ground, a photographer hired by the district authorities to document the evictions, physically assaulted Hoque, even jumping upon his body!

The team met the young daughter of the deceased and found that she was “sobbing inconsolably, and had not had anything to eat or drink since the incident. The family and community are traumatised, especially children. The entire family is living under a makeshift piece of tin.”

In a fact-finding report released after the visit, CPIML asks, “What can possibly justify 17 Assam police personnel opening fire on a lone man armed with nothing but a stick?” They refuse to accept this as a valid form of crowd control, and have instead called it “encounter” and a “murder”.

The team also discovered that the evictions were carried out in complete contravention of the law that requires proper notice to be served and adequate times to be given to people who are to be evicted. “Eviction Notices have been served to some through Whatsapp calls the previous night, some got notices after eviction, and some have not yet received notices at all,” found the team and asked, “What was the tearing hurry to evict by force, without even serving notices properly?”

But most importantly, the team found enough evidence to suggest that the evicted families were not encroachers at all. “The evicted households have settlement papers dating back to 7 February 1979, showing that they have been paying occupancy charges. The government has set up Aanganwadi Kendras and schools etc. When the river floods their land, they are displaced onto government land,” found the team.

Digging deeper into the genesis of the “encroacher vs indigenous person” debate, the team finds glaring lacunae in the Land Policy (2019) and the Brahma Committee Report, both of which talk about removing “encroachers” from government land and redistributing it to “indigenous” people. They ask two very pertinent questions, that the Assam government must answer:

·  The definition of “indigenous” is not provided in the policy – why are families of Bengali-descent Muslims considered non-indigenous when they have lived on the land for 4 or 5 decades?

·  Moreover, erosion affected persons in Laika and Dadiya in Tinsukia who fit the BJP’s definition of “indigenous” are yet to get the government land they are demanding. Why divide erosion affected persons based on ethnicity or religion?

The communal hues of this eviction drive are stark, as is the ploy to help crony capitalists. The team observes, “The whole thing is a ploy to grab land to hand over to corporates as is already happening near the airport, at Mikir Bamuni etc.”

After careful study and assessment of ground realities, the CPIML has listed the following demands:

• The CM, who is responsible for the communal eviction policy, and whose brother is the SP Darrang, who conducted the murderous attack, must resign.

• Directions of the Supreme Court in its order dated September 23, 2014, in People’s Union for Civil Liberties vs. Union of India [(2014) 10 SCC 635] (on police encounter killings) must be strictly complied with. There should be registration of FIR with regard to the killing of Moinul Hoque and Sheikh Farid. An independent investigation into this must be conducted by the CID or police team of another police station under the supervision of a senior officer. The police officer(s) concerned must surrender their weapons for forensic and ballistic analysis, including any other material as required for investigation.

• The SP Darrang and police personnel involved in firing and arson must be sacked, arrested and charged under all appropriate criminal sections including murder, arson and attempt to murder.

• No more evictions of the poor under any pretext. Instead evict the super-rich who have built resorts in forest core zones, tea companies who have occupied 6,354 acres of land to illegally set up tea gardens, encroachments by industries in tribal belts, and the BJP office built on Gov’t land in Guwahati.

• Stop the communal propaganda claiming that temples are being encroached by “illegal immigrants”. In fact, at Darrang the temple has been kept safe in an area where almost 99 percent families are Muslim. The Hindu caretaker of the temple Parvati Das has also been evicted under the Land policy. If the Govt speaks of preserving sacred sites (Satras) – why is the land grab near the airport destroying the Koita Siddhi Satra near it?

• Local communities are providing relief to the displaced persons but the Government must take responsibility and provide relief, including medical camps, drinking water, food, shelter, and hygiene.

• All evicted persons at Darrang must be restored to their lands and their homes must be rebuilt.

Image courtesy: CPI (ML) Liberation 

Related:

Assam Police Firing: People across India demand justice for evicted families

Assam Police Firing: Support for victims grows

Assam Police Firing: Death toll rises, victim blaming rampant

Police firing in Assam: Illegal and unforgivable

BREAKING: 2 killed, 10 injured in police firing in Assam

The post Assam Police Firing: Who are “encroachers” and who are “indigenous”? appeared first on SabrangIndia.

On September 23, 2021, two civilians were killed and several others including nine policemen were injured in violence during an eviction drive in Assam’s Darrang district. The so-called ‘eviction drive’ by the State Government is another blatant effort to ‘weed’ out ‘foreigners’ (read ‘Muslims’) from the State. Assam has not stopped targeting the Muslims (who comprise about one-third of the State’s population).

Already in August 2019 the National Register of Citizenship (NRC) omitted 1.9 million people. In an exhaustive but insightful article in the New York Times (15 September 2021), ‘They Are Manufacturing Foreigners’: How India Disenfranchises Muslims’, Siddhartha Deb writes, “the Hindu right has long identified border regions like Kashmir and Assam as places to raise the specter of a Muslim threat. But while Kashmir has often been used to conjure the danger of secession, Assam represents, in the rhetoric of Hindu extremists, a more insidious menace — that of a steady, cross-border influx of Muslims guaranteed to make Hindus a persecuted minority in their own country. Assam is largely peripheral to historic Indian civilizations as well as to modern India — Guwahati lies more than 1,000 miles east of Delhi, with China and Myanmar far closer. Yet Assam has become central to the question of who is — and who is not — entitled to be a citizen in India.”

Almost fifty years ago in 1972, David Campton, a prolific British dramatist, wrote an apparently innocuous, straight- forward and simple one-act play, entitled ‘Us and Them’. The play begins innocently enough with two groups of wanderers looking for an ‘ideal’ place to settle. They do find this ‘ideal’ place in the midst of environmental grandeur. Ironically, their ‘places’ are adjacent to each other. After mutual agreement they draw a line (what most of us humans will find just natural and practical) demarcating their respective territories. No problem for some time; soon however, the line becomes a fence, the fence becomes a wall, and the wall grows in size until neither side knows what the other is doing, on the ‘other side’ of the wall!

Naturally, they keep wondering! They start ‘jumping to conclusions. In a matter of time, their thoughts turn to suspicion and their suspicion to mistrust and mistrust to fear, with each side believing that the other is hatching a plot against them. As fear takes hold, both sides begin preparing for a possible conflict until eventually it becomes a reality and violent. In the end, two survivors, looking at the waste they have inflicted on one other, conclude, “the wall was to blame”. The play was reflective of the growing polarisation and divisiveness that had seized several nations and groups at that time of history. It was a play meant to ridicule the abysmal depths to which human nature can fall; to highlight the absolute stupidity yet the suffering caused solely by humans, which exists in society!

Campton’s play is very reflective of what is happening in India today: of how divisiveness and polarisation, jingoism and xenophobia have gripped several sections of society. Thanks to the venomous hate speeches spewed out by politicians (particularly from the ruling regime) and sadly enough even by some Catholic Bishops.  A significant section of society has now become ‘Us and Them’; the tendency is to exclude the other: by what they eat or wear, read or see, believe or profess, the colour of their skin or their ethnicity. Even sacred terms like ‘jihad’ are used in a derogatory way to cast aspersions on the other.

It is in this painful context that Pope Francis’ message Towards an Ever Wider “We” for the 107th World Day of Migrants and Refugees which is observed by the Catholic Church on September 26, 2021, makes not only tremendous sense but provides a definite direction for all who would claim to be disciples of Jesus. The opening words of his message makes his intention clear, “In the Encyclical Fratelli Tutti, I expressed a concern and a hope that remain uppermost in my thoughts: “Once this health crisis passes, our worst response would be to plunge even more deeply into feverish consumerism and new forms of egotistic self-preservation. God willing, after all this, we will think no longer in terms of ‘them’ and ‘those’, but only ‘us’” (No. 35). For this reason, I have wished to devote the Message for this year’s World Day of Migrants and Refugees to the theme, Towards an Ever Wider “We”, in order to indicate a clear horizon for our common journey in this world”.

The Pope continues his message with a brief history of salvation and the importance of ‘we’ as it unfolds. He uses strong words when we says, “Our “we”, both in the wider world and within the Church, is crumbling and cracking due to myopic and aggressive forms of nationalism (cf. Fratelli Tutti, 11) and radical individualism (cf. ibid., 105). And the highest price is being paid by those who most easily become viewed as others: foreigners, migrants, the marginalized, those living on the existential peripheries”.

Pope Francis has made the care and concern for refugees and migrants a hallmark of his papacy. His homilies, messages and talks constantly refer to their plight. Recently as the Afghan crisis unfolded he called upon everyone to help those who have been so tried, especially women and children, saying solidarity brings coexistence and peace. He said that in historic moments like these, we cannot remain indifferent, specially to those who become victims of the crisis and have to seek refuge elsewhere.

His message, in essence, focuses on a Church that is more and ‘Catholic’! This perhaps will not go down well with some of the ‘holy’ Catholics of today – who have made exclusivity a trademark of their rather unchristian ‘Catholicism’. With his usual candour, Pope Francis minces no words saying, “In our day, the Church is called to go out into the streets of every existential periphery in order to heal wounds and to seek out the straying, without prejudice or fear, without proselytising, but ready to widen her tent to embrace everyone. Among those dwelling in those existential peripheries, we find many migrants and refugees, displaced persons and victims of trafficking, to whom the Lord wants his love to be manifested and his salvation preached”. The Pope is unequivocal: every Catholic has to be a Witness today!

There is the case of a young Christian woman from Pakistan: as a child she was neglected and rejected. She married a Christian man when still not out of her teens; the marriage turned out to be an unhappy one and she ultimately legally separated from him and being given the custody of the two children she bore. A few years later she met an Indian Christian widower (with a daughter) on an online portal. She ultimately came to India with her two children, they married in the Catholic Church, and the couple lived happily with the three children. Thanks to the affluence of the husband, the family was well received and popular in the community. Unfortunately, tragedy struck with the husband succumbing to the pandemic. There was a spontaneous outpouring of sympathy and material help for the bereaved widow and the three children.

Greed for the deceased’s property however, got the better of a relative of the dead first wife of the deceased husband. He first tried to take guardianship of the minor daughter which was refused by a Court. He then filed a complaint saying that the Pakistani woman was living in India based on fraudulent documents. The fact is that whilst she entered India legally, her deceased husband had managed to get her other official Indian documents based on some fake certificates. She was totally oblivious and innocent of this. She was jailed for a month but is now out on bail, waiting for the trial to begin. In the meantime, she gave birth to another child from her late husband. Ever since she was jailed, barring the exception of just two or three, the Christians have shunned her like a ‘pariah’; there is very little material help forthcoming and practically no signs of empathy and solidarity; what abounds however are rumours, gossip and derogatory remarks on the hapless woman, who is a victim of circumstances in a foreign land. It could be because of a ‘misplaced fear’ but certainly far from what is expected from a disciple of Jesus. Pope Francis surely has instances like these in mind when he calls upon the Church to become more and ‘Catholic’: to be witnesses!

Fr Stephen Raj SJ the South Asia Regional Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, speaking of the challenges refugees face today says, “The new influx of Myanmar Chin refugees in large scale in Manipur and Mizoram face untold hardships for survival. They are in pitiful condition and facing acute hardship in terms of food, clothing, shelter, medical aid and protection. For them to reach New Delhi based UNHCR to apply for asylum seekers or refuge permits travelling thousands of kilo meters without any permits at this time of covid is the biggest challenge. Without refugee identity they remain illegal and undergo constant threat of harassment and detention. The plight of refugees or forcefully displaced people is becoming horrendous and appalling with the pandemic. It has exacerbated the preexisting vulnerabilities of the refugees. The refugees need well integrated and comprehensive rehabilitation program to address their issues to foster life and promote their dignity”.

In the final part of his message Pope Francis calls for “an ever more inclusive world” saying “Ours must be a personal and collective commitment that cares for all our brothers and sisters who continue to suffer, even as we work towards a more sustainable, balanced and inclusive development. A commitment that makes no distinction between natives and foreigners, between residents and guests, since it is a matter of a treasure we hold in common, from whose care and benefits no one should be excluded”. He ends with a dream “We are called to dream together, fearlessly, as a single human family, as companions on the same journey, as sons and daughters of the same earth that is our common home, sisters and brothers all”

Do we dare dream together and act courageously as “WE” to be authentic witnesses of Jesus in the India of today? Be it for those in Assam, or the Chins or the Pakistani woman – or for that matter any migrant or refugee, the ‘other’ in our midst?

*(Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ is a human right, reconciliation & peace activist/writer.

Other pieces by Fr. Cedric Prakash SJ:

The bogey of ‘Love Jihad’

US Government lambasts India on Freedom of Religion

The post Wider “WE” is Witness! appeared first on SabrangIndia.

The day after police opened fire on people protesting eviction from their homes in Darrang district of Assam, support has been pouring in for the victims and survivors of the inhuman carnage. SabrangIndia had reported how on Thursday, two people were killed and at least ten injured when police opened fire on people protesting eviction in the Dhalpur region of the state.

At present, there are unconfirmed reports of a rise in the death toll. However, sources have told SabrangIndia that since the hospital where the injured are being treated had been surrounded by the police and only family members of the injured are being allowed to go in, it is difficult to confirm if any other people have succumbed to their injuries.

We have received horrifying images showing people with injuries to the upper-parts of their bodies – face, head, chest and stomach. They show clearly that the police wilfully acted in a brutal manner. It is set procedure as per various guidelines and rules as well as common knowledge that firing for the purpose of crowd control should only be a last resort, and even then, shots should not target any vital organs and ideally be directed below the knee. Clearly, this was not the case in the Thursday firing. Read more about police procedure for crowd control here.)

Another shocking video shows a man with a camera brutally assaulting a protester even as police personnel stand by, not making any attempt to intervene and save the protester.

Action taken by the Assam government

So far, in terms of action by the administration, the cameraman, identified as one Bijoy Bania, who had been hired by the authorities to take pictures of the eviction process, has been arrested. GP Singh, Special DGP (Law and Order) tweeted saying that “the said cameraman has been arrested in a case registered by Assam CID in connection with the incident.” He further said that the government has “decided that enquiry by a retired Hon Judge of Gauhati High Court would be conducted into incident at Darrang district where two civilians lost their lives and a large number of on-duty Assam Police personnel were injured.”

Reference video of incident at Gorukhuti, Darrang – the said cameraman has been arrested in a case registered with @AssamCid in connection with the incident. @mygovassam @CMOfficeAssam @assampolice

— GP Singh (@gpsinghips) September 23, 2021

Evictions – CM’s pet project, Darrang SP – CM’s brother

Three things cannot be ignored:

• Police action was disproportionate, brutal and illegal
• A majority of people evicted from their homes so far belong to the minority community
• The Superintendent of Police of Darrang district where the firing took place and where these wvictions are being carried out is none other than Sushanta Biswa Sarma, brother of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The bigger questions are:

• Did a high-ranking police officer allow his family connection or personal politics to interfere with how he discharged his duties?
• Is the state government, run by a party with an anti-minority ideology abusing power and connections to selectively target followers of a certain faith?
• Does this not reek of ethnic cleansing?

SabrangIndia has previously reported on the series of heartless evictions that are taking place amidst not only the monsoon in a flood-prone riverine region, but also during a deadly Covid-19 pandemic. A majority of the families evicted are members of the minority Muslim community.

However, instead of apologising, the Chief Minister had on September 20, when 200 families were evicted from Dhalpur, openly patted the back of the district administration. He had tweeted saying, “Continuing our drive against illegal encroachments, I am happy and compliment district administration of Darrang and Assam Police for having cleared about 4500 bigha, by evicting 800 households, demolishing 4 illegal religious structures and a private instn (sic) at Sipajhar, Darrang.”

Continuing our drive against illegal encroachments, I am happy and compliment district administration of Darrang and @assampolice for having cleared about 4500 bigha, by evicting 800 households, demolishing 4 illegal religious structures and a private instn at Sipajhar, Darrang. pic.twitter.com/eXG6XBNH6j

— Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) September 20, 2021

After Thursday’s firing, one cannot ignore how the police brutality might have had sanction from the highest authority, with the CM’s brother controlling police in the region.

Right-wing: Blaming the victim

However, right-wing organisations, that bear close association with the ideological progenitors of the party in power in Assam are already giving a different spin to the narrative. In an article titled 518 migrant Muslim families evicted from government land in Dhalpur, 8 Assam police personnel injured in encroachers attack, 2 attackers killed in police firing, the publication squarely blames the evicted families calling them “migrant Muslim miscreants” and “illegal encroachers”. It even accused the families of stone pelting, attacking the police with sharp weapons and even setting fire to their own huts!

This vilification campaign is also being amplified on social media by trolls. But perhaps this is the right-wing’s attempt to draw attention away from all the support and sympathy that the victims and survivors have received.

Support from civil society and Opposition parties grows

The incident has once again sparked outrage. Rahul Gandhi tweeted saying, “Assam is on state-sponsored fire. I stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the state- no children of India deserve this.”

Assam is on state-sponsored fire.

I stand in solidarity with our brothers and sisters in the state- no children of India deserve this. pic.twitter.com/syo4BTIXKH

— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) September 23, 2021

Meanwhile, the CPIML has demanded the resignation of Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. In a statement, CPIML Politburo member Kavita Krishnan said, “The whole world is shocked by the massacre by the Assam Police of poor unarmed Muslims protesting demolition of their homes in Darrang district of Assam. Many have sustained horrific injuries. Even children have not been spared.” Highlighting how the carnage took place in a district where the Superintendent of Police is the CM’s brother, Krishnan said, “Significantly the Superintendent of Police of Darrang district, who commands the murderous police force, is the brother of the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. This shows that the massacre is no “mistake”, it is a policy of ethnic cleansing directed by the CM’s office itself. For justice to be done, it is imperative that the SP and his men be arrested and charged with murder; the CM must be sacked; and an independent court-monitored enquiry be set up which must investigate the entire chain of command from Home Ministry of India to the Chief Minister of Assam down to his brother the Darrang SP.”

The All India Kisan Mazdoor Sabha (AIKMS) has also issued a statement in solidarity with the victims saying, “AIKMS strongly condemns police firing on the people in Dhalpur in Darrang District of Assam. In this firing two persons have been killed and several seriously injured. Police resorted to firing as part of drive to evict people in the name of encroachment though they have been living there since long.” It added, “On Monday police had forcibly evicted 800 families. They resorted to firing to evict more families.” Calling out the state government for its role, it said, “RSS-BJP govt. has taken this undemocratic and inhuman drive even without providing any alternative to the evicted people. This drive is to forcibly evict people who belong to minorities.” Further it said, “AIKMS demands that this eviction be stopped immediately, lands of those evicted and police officers who ordered firing to kill people be prosecuted. AIKMS calls upon all peasant organisations and democratic forces to protest against this illegal and i human eviction drive.”

Related:

BREAKING: 2 killed, 10 injured in police firing in Assam

Are encroachment removal drives in Assam selectively targeting the minority community?

Heartless government poised to evict thousands amidst Covid-19, monsoon in Assam

Assam: 25 hutments demolished by Sonitpur district administration amidst Covid’s deadly second surge

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