Eviction drive in Assam: Citizenship, livelihood issues to the fore

A cat-and-mouse game is common in Assam's frequent eviction drives against those illegally occupying government land, forests and water bodies. Many of those evicted are often seen re-occupying the land till they are evicted again. However, the eviction drives carried out since 2016, when the BJP formed its first government in the state and more so when Himanta Biswa Sarma became the Chief Minister in May this year, has become different.

Sarma's frequent claim that many of those illegally occupying the government land did not have names in the National Register of Citizens (NRC) has added a new twist to the process of their rehabilitation. Even an affidavit submitted in the Gauhati High Court by a revenue officer in Darrang district said rehabilitation of those evicted from government land in the district in September would depend on several conditions, including their citizenship status.

"The questions over their citizenship have definitely confused the victims and the general people. The motive of such statements is definitely to garner political mileage. But the reality is that most of those who have been evicted from Dholpur (in Darrang) are Indian citizens and has their names in the NRC. And those whose names did not figure in the updated NRC cannot be termed foreigners till they are declared so by a court. So they have the right to claim land and other basic amenities from the government as guaranteed by the Constitution," adviser of All Assam Minorities Students' Union (AAMSU), Ainuddin Ahmed told DH.

Over 7,200 Muslims were evicted from 7,000 bighas of land at the Gorukhuti area in Dholpur in Darrang district in September. The drive, however, took an ugly turn on September 23 when two persons including a 12-year-old boy died in police firing and 10 others were injured. Darrang district administration said police had to open fire as they had attacked the police and government officials.

Also read: Assam government launches eviction drive in Lumding reserve forest, 1,500 people evicted

Chief Minister Sarma said the drive was part of the promise of his government and the party (BJP) to clear government land and forests from "encroachers." The Opposition Congress, on the other hand, alleged that the same was directed towards the Bengali-speaking Muslims only, whom BJP projects as foreigners and a threat to the identity and culture of the "indigenous" communities, before elections. Another drive was carried out in Lumding reserve forest in Hojai district between November 8 and 10, evicting the "encroachers." The drive in Lumding was, by and large peaceful, with many saying that the victims did not protest much fearing Dholpur-like police firing.

Over 19 lakh people were left out of the NRC, which was updated and published in August 2019 in order to segregate foreigners and solve the state’s long-standing problem of illegal migration from neighbouring Bangladesh. The citizenship of these people, most of whom are Bengali-speaking Muslims, continues to hang in balance as the process to allow them to move foreigners' tribunals and courts to clear their names has remained in limbo.

As Sarma and his government vowed to carry on with similar eviction drive in other districts, AAMSU took their fight to New Delhi by staging a protest at Jantar Mantar alleging that only Muslims are being targeted. "the Government of Assam, without verifying the historical reality and on some vested political agenda has engaged in an arbitrary, selective and illegal eviction spree by evicting genuine Indian citizens from their homestead without rehabilitating them and thereby forcing these people to live in a beastly nomadic life," AAMSU said in a memorandum to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on November 8.

Flood and erosion victims: A PIL filed by the leader of the Opposition and senior Congress leader, Debabrat Saikia in Gauhati High court claimed that most of those evicted from Dholpur had lost their land due to flood and erosion that wreak havoc across Assam almost every year. Kamaljeet Sarma, the revenue circle officer in Darrang district, in an affidavit submitted in the high court, however, rejected the claim saying that such people did not have documents to prove that they were victims of erosion. "Whenever a family becomes a victim of erosion and becomes landless, they are to register that with a revenue office. But these people did not produce any such certificate," he said.

He claimed that these people migrated from other parts of Assam and occupied the fertile government land. "In the garb of being landless, some have become land grabbers," he said. Chief Minister Sarma also alleged a “bigger conspiracy” saying that intelligence agencies found that Islamic outfit Popular Front of India (PFI) had instigated the eviction victims in Dholpur leading to the clash with police on September 23. “The eviction in Lumding was peaceful as it blocked the entry of the PFI workers,” Sarma told a television channel in New Delhi recently.

Rights over land: The BJP leaders and those in the government have often projected the eviction drives as a fight to protect the land rights of the indigenous people against the threat from "illegal migrants" from Bangladesh. The government land at Gorukhuti was cleared for taking up a multi-crore agriculture farm to provide employment to people belonging to "indigenous" communities. The work is underway for the agriculture farm. "We want Assamese youths to get engaged in farming, fishery, piggery, dairy and other income-generating activities. Now all such jobs are in the hands of Bengali-speaking Muslims, who are growing crops in government land, forests and selling them to us. Our indigenous people must take control of such works," a BJP leader said.

Interestingly, Assam has not yet finalised the definition of who is an indigenous people.

Watch the latest DH Videos here: