Bigotry’s new poster boy

Sarma’s stereotyping builds upon his depiction of Bengali Muslims, during April poll campaign, as communalists who’ve distorted Assamese culture and language. Pic/AFP

Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been conducting a higher order of Hindutva experiments in Assam than, say, Yogi Adityanath in Uttar Pradesh. Perhaps Sarma's experiments have not been scrutinised because his methods are subtle. Or because the state's smaller quota of 14 MPs in the Lok Sabha implies that happenings there cannot alter the constitutional idea of India.

Yet Sarma's experiments are divisive. It is dangerous because Assam is a border State. For instance, Sarma recently declared that families with more than two children will be denied the benefits of certain government welfare schemes. But this norm, he said, will not apply to the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and tea-garden workers. Sarma explained, "The root cause of issues like poverty, land encroachment, etc. lies in uncontrolled population growth… We can put an end to a lot of social problems if the Muslim community adopts decent family planning."

Sarma is exploiting Assam's anxieties spawned by the 2011 Census data. Between 2001 and 2011, the State clocked a decadal growth rate of 17.07 percent, which could have been much lower but for the Muslims growing at 29.59 per cent in the same period. After all, Assam's Hindus, it is argued, registered a decadal growth rate of just 10.89 per cent.

Yet Sarma's decision of excluding the SCs and STs from the two-child norm is discriminatory and flawed. This becomes palpable when the Census data is disaggregated. The SCs in Assam, between 2001 and 2011, grew at 22.20 per cent, and the STs by 17.40 per cent. Take out the SCs and STs from Assam's Hindu population, and the decadal growth rate for "Other Hindus" reads an impressive 7.43 per cent.

These figures prove right those demographers who claim that a community languishing in poverty and illiteracy tends to have larger families than those who are affluent. The SCs and STs had a far higher growth rate than caste Hindus precisely because the latter are wealthier, more urban, and better educated than the former. This, in turn, implies Sarma's exclusion of the SCs and STs will not significantly resolve Assam's socio-economic problems.

Sarma's discriminatory policy seems linked with justifying the eviction of Muslims accused of appropriating land belonging to satras, or Vaishnavite monasteries, other temples, and government land. In 2019, the earlier BJP government amended the Assam Land and Revenue Regulation, 1886. This prevents persons who had "unauthorizedly" taken land belonging to religious institutions a 100 or more years old from acquiring any "right or title to the land" on the grounds that their possession had not been challenged for a long period (called adverse possession), which is 12 years for private property.

Just what might be in the offing was glimpsed earlier this month, when the Assam administration evicted families settled on 120 bighas of land in Dhalpur village, in Sipajhar revenue circle of Darrang district. The land, it was claimed, belonged to the pre-historic Shiv temple there. On June 7, Sarma tweeted saying that 120 bighas had been "freed". The Human Rights Law Network, however, contended that the temple had been built in the 1980s, and those evicted included 49 Muslim and one Hindu families.

Sarma has formed a committee to utilise for agriculture purposes 77,000 bighas of government land allegedly under illegal occupation in Darrang district. A large percentage of settlers, most of whom are Muslim, have been living here for decades but do not have legal rights. Since the committee comprises only BJP members, it has sparked fears among Muslims that they would be replaced by Hindu cultivators.

Love Jihad is the BJP's slogan in north India. In Assam, it is land jihad, a term BJP leaders invoke to claim that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh have appropriated the land of indigenous Hindus by hoodwinking them. This charge portends a terrifying social schism.

On Sarma's legislative anvil is a proposal to protect cattle. In an Assembly debate, Sarma said, "Cow is our mother… There is no need to have Hotel Madina in Fancy Bazar [in Guwahati,]… because people have sensitivity. Where there is no sensitivity, all personal habits will continue." It seems the proposed law will only ban inter-state movement of cattle and their slaughter in Assam's Hindu majority areas.

Yet a Muslim MLA wondered aloud whether the new cattle law will demonise Muslims and lead to their lynching. His fears are not unfounded. As Chief Minister, Sarma has posted three tweets pertaining to three criminal cases, naming the accused on each occasion - and all of them are Muslim. Sarma's stereotyping builds upon his depiction of Bengali Muslims, during the April election campaign, as communalists who have distorted Assamese culture and language.

Hindutva deploys power to awe dissenters into silence, and discredit opponents by disparaging them. This is precisely why an incredibly large number of police personnel brought peasant leader Akhil Gogoi, who had won his election from prison, to take oath in the Assembly, as if he was a mafia don. Sarma, to the shock of many, claimed Gogoi was being treated for "psychological issues because of his emotional imbalance". Gogoi is in fine fettle. It is Assam that needs to worry about its future under bigotry's new poster boy - Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The writer is a senior journalist. Send your feedback to mailbag@mid-day.com
The views expressed in this column are the individual's and don't represent those of the paper.