Assam’s violent election

Press, 18 February 1983, Page 16

Assam’s violent election

The violence in which numbers of people have been killed during the election in Assam is appalling. Nevertheless, it is difficult to see what the central Government of India could have done to avoid the disaster. Assam has had four governments since a State Assembly was elected in 1978. Because of protests and disruption, polls could be held in 1980 for only two of the 14 members Assam sends to the national Parliament. For the last year Assam has been under Presidential rule because no workable majority could be found for the State Assembly. The present election is being held because by India's Constitution a state cannot remain under Presidential rule for more than a year unless there is emergency rule in the country. An election thus had to be held before March to avoid a constitutional crisis.

By Indian standards the state of Assam is underpopulated. In the south-east the state borders Bangladesh, which was formerly East Pakistan. For years people from Bangladesh have filtered across the border and the issue of illegal immigrants surfaced many years ago. During the IndiaPakistan war of 1971 huge numbers came. Some have returned. Many have stayed. Some are registered voters. Non-Assamese from the Indian state of West Bengal have also been seen by some Assam people, particularly students, as a threat to the linguistic and ethnic identity of Assam. The Congress Party of the Prime Minister, Mrs Gandhi, has been accused of encouraging the immigration to strengthen the hold of the Congress Party over Assam. The fact that most Assamese are Hindu and that many of the immigrants are Muslim has complicated the issue.

Those who have been protesting about the immigration have wanted two things — the deportation of non-Assamese, and deregistration of non-Assamese voters. The argument has centred on the cut-off date:

how long a period of residence should make a person a resident of Assam and qualified to vote? The issue is further complicated by the fact that Bangladesh says that it will not accept any more people from Assam because there has not been, according to Bangladesh, any exodus since the December, 1971, war. However, it is widely believed that emigration from Bangladesh to Assam is still continuing. The protesters have conceded that 1961, not 1951 should be a cut-off date for deportation and the debate now centres on those who came between 1961 and 1971. The Government has conceded that there may, still be some Bangladeshis who came after 1971 still in the state. The identification of those who simply walked across the border and joined fellow Bangladeshis presents immense problems for the Indian authorities. The protesters are demanding the building of a wall or a barbed-wire fence to keep out the Bangladeshis. The outcome of these complications is that Assam is having an election which most of the opposition parties do not want. The Election Commission has ruled that regular troops cannot be used to keep law and order during the election so 40 battalions of paramilitary troops have been recruited. They cannot prevent some of the worst excesses of violence. Another difficulty lies in the fact-that the electoral rolls'being used are those of the 1980 election and are under suspicion because of the possible inclusion of non-Assamese voters. The best outcome of the election would be for a workable majority to be elected to the 126-member State Assembly and for the remaining 12 members of the national Parliament to be chosen. That would avoid a constitutional crisis. Probably normal behaviour will not return to the state until the protesters and the Government settle the question of illegal immigrants.