Tussle between regional and national parties to ‘safeguard’ Assam’s identity

Guwahati: As Assam prepares to elect a new government, regionalism remains a core issue for the state, which has been grappling with concerns over safeguarding its “identity” from the threat of “outsiders”, mainly illegal migrants, for decades.

The relevance of regional political parties has come under question over the years with all such major outfits, including the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), aligning with national parties.

“Hijacking” of the primary issue of “Asomiya Jatiyotabad” (Assamese nationalism) by the national parties, coupled with the more expansive resources at their disposal, have made the regional parties to take sides with them for electoral survival, political analysts maintained.

The “failure” of AGP to carve a strong path for regional forces even after leading two governments in the last four decades has also led to these parties being “sidelined”, they said.

“Protection of culture, language, and identity has always been a concern for the Assamese people. And this has been used by different political dispensations in different manner,” columnist and political analyst Brojen Deka said.

The “threat” to the indigenous people from Bengali-speaking Muslims, mostly of Bangladesh origin, has been viewed as the most prominent in recent decades, and continues to remain so, he maintained.

Elections have been fought and governments formed with the purported promise of solving this issue as recent as the current one, Deka claimed.

“If you see the BJP’s sweeping entry into power in 2016, the poll plank was ‘jati, mati, bheti’ (community, land, home), a direct reference to safeguarding the indigenous identity. And in 2026 elections also, it is still promising to act against illegal Bangladeshis from the state,” the columnist pointed out.

It was with this assurance of identifying and deporting illegal foreigners that the AGP led governments twice in 1985 and 1996, a party formed by leaders who were at the forefront of the anti-infiltration, six-year-long Assam agitation, Nava Kumar Mahanta, retired professor of Nowgong College (now Nagaon University) said.

“It was a regional party which led the government for two terms. But now, it is merely a smaller ally to the BJP. In the last two Assembly elections, we have seen that the party has been contesting in only 26 seats out of total of 126,” he said. “And what is more worrying now is that this year, 13 out of its 26 candidates are Muslims and many of them Bengali-speaking ones, a community which the AGP had earlier viewed with suspicion as being illegal migrants,” Mahanta said.

He added that AGP had a secular outlook since its formation, but had always distanced itself from the Bengali-speaking Muslims.

“This seems to have gradually reversed as one feels that in the pursuit of power by a few leaders, the AGP is being used to woo the community to ensure more numbers for the ruling alliance,” the retired professor said.