In Assam, Chowkidar Modi shuts the door on Citizenship Bill issue

A lot can happen in five years. Back in 2014, Himanta Biswa Sarma, then a Congress minister, had called Narendra Modi a “terrorist” and said “blood of Muslims flows through the water pipes in Gujarat”. That was in a poll rally in Tezpur. The Election Commission had show-caused Sarma for his comments following a complaint by the BJP.

On March 30, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi kick-started his 2019 Lok Sabha campaign in Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, Sarma — now BJP’s Northeast face — told the crowd in Gohpur to swear in the name of “Jai Aai Axom (glory to mother Assam) to elect Modi the PM for a second time.

The PM was in Assam for a day during which he addressed rallies in Gohpur and Moran. Both Gohpur and Moran fall under Tezpur and Dibrugarh Parliamentary constituencies respectively that are dotted with tea gardens and represented by the BJP.

PM Modi’s visit comes closely on the heels of the BJP president Amit Shah’s visit to the state on Thursday. However, both the prime minister and the BJP president steered clear of the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in their speeches.

The state had witnessed widespread protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill until January this year under the aegis of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and other organisations, including the AGP and the Congress. The bill seeks to grant nationality to non-Muslims from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan after six years of residence in India.

In February, when Modi visited the state, he was greeted with black flags and protests from members of the All Assam Students Union (AASU). But two months later, prominent leaders from AASU and various ethnic groups opposing the controversial Bill have either joined the BJP or are supporting the party in the upcoming Lok Sabha elections.

This time around, both Modi and Shah repeatedly attacked the Congress over ‘dynasty politics’ and other issues ailing the state, including illegal immigration from Bangladesh. Modi also took a dig at former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who is a five-time Rajya Sabha MP from the state, for not doing anything for Assam.

“Congress Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who was an MP from Assam did nothing for the state but as soon as Modi dangoriya (a respected elder) took charge, Assam’s progress has accelerated,” Sarma said today. Sarma also credited Modi for putting an end to infiltration in the state.

Even though Modi and other BJP leaders kept invoking the ‘foreigners’ issue’ in Assam, they were careful not to mention the Citizenship Bill.

The Bill lapsed in the Rajya Sabha after strong objection by the Opposition parties, but weeks away from the Lok Sabha elections, the BJP has managed to bring into its fold prominent anti-Citizenship Bill voices, including the vice-president of All Assam Students’ Union Moni Madhab Mahanta and Ashini Chetia, who was adviser to the All Tai Ahom Students’ Union.

Chetia, who spearheaded the anti-citizenship bill protest in Upper Assam, joined the BJP a few days ago while Mahanta left AASU to join the AGP.

In fact, the AGP had snapped all ties with the BJP in the wake of anti-citizenship bill protests, but later revived the alliance ahead of the elections. Notably, all these leaders strangely claim that their opposition to the Bill would continue. With such doublespeak increasingly becoming a norm, the (AASU) is now mulling introducing, a six-month cooling-off period, for its members, before joining political parties after quitting the organisation.

The BJP has set a target of 25 seats in the Northeast in order to make up for possible losses elsewhere in the country. In the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP had bagged seven out of the 14 seats in Assam and won one of the two seats in Arunachal Pradesh.

Assam is set to go for three-phase polling in the Lok Sabha elections on April 11, 18 and 23.