‘D’ Voter problem is one of the main issues confronting the society in Assam. It has already been dragged to the Supreme Court. Though the meaning of ‘D’ is disputed in recent days but initially the letter ‘D’ was used for defaulter. Those who couldn’t submit their valid documents within the given time to the Local Verification Officer, were marked as ‘D’. This problem appeared for the first time in the voter’s list, published on 1st January 1997 and existed only in the state of Assam.. This unique and unprecedented problem has been mainly confined to the Muslims of Bengal origin and Bengali Hindus of Assam.
It is seen that most recently it has been extended to some other castes but has not created any bad impact for them. Though the problem came into light for the first time in the voter’s list of 1997, yet it has been harassing the Muslims of Assam especially of Bengal origin in the post-Independence era at different times in different names.
During the times of communal violence in various places of India just after independence, the situation of Assam was completely peaceful. But in 1950, while the situation of whole India was turning calm and peaceful, the state of Assam suddenly fell into the fire of inconceivable communal violence. During that time a kind of unilateral ethnic cleansing against the Muslims of undivided Goalpara and Kamrup districts of Lower Assam occurred. In that violence, hundreds of Muslims were brutally killed without any rhyme or reason. Many of them rendered crippled for the rest of their life. Lakhs of Muslims were experienced the horror of violence and were compelled to go away to then East Pakistan, leaving their hard-won movable and immovable properties behind.
Dr. Rezaul Karim in his book Asomor Musolman Satya Aru Sanghat (page 79-80) writes with quotations of some eyewitnesses that almost 8-10 lakh of Muslims were compelled to leave Assam during that time. As a result, the vast area from Kalgachia to Abhayapuri became depopulated. Freedom fighter Debeswar Sarma in his book Herai Joa Dinbor (page 193-194) has written that within four days of violence, as much as 1 lakh of Bengali Muslims from both banks of the river Brahmaputra were pushed out of the boundary of Assam. According to the commentary of one late Abdul Aziz of village Bonghugi in Barpeta District, who was serving as a volunteer at a shelter camp established in the frontier area of Rangpur District in East Pakistan, more than two lakh refugees took shelter in indescribable hardship in twenty such camps established in the adjoining areas of Rangpur District.
There may be diversity of opinions regarding the numbers of victims, yet there is no doubt that the number of fugitives of the violence will be more than two lakh. Keeping in view the number of people sustaining loss, a bilateral treaty was signed between the then Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan respectively, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru and Mr. Liaquat Ali Khan on 8th April 1950 for a good solution, which is known as Nehru-Liaquat Pact in history. Though a small part of the displaced people under the said treaty returned to their respective houses but a large number of them couldn’t do so as per the time scheduled mentioned in the treaty due to fear of repetition of the violence, adverse atmosphere of Assam and very poor condition of communication systems. As a result, the name of those people couldn’t be included in the NRC (National Register of Citizens) prepared under the first census of independent India in 1951.
Besides, the names of many people have been left out of that NRC due to non-entrance of officials engaged in the work to the inaccessible river sides and remote Char areas. There is a note made by the authority in this regard at page 257 of 1961 census report as “Some Moslems of Goalpara and Kamrup District, who might have not been able to come back to their houses in Assam during the census.” It is also mentioned that “Some Moslems living in the Chars or sandbars of the river Brahmaputra might also have been left out of the count of the 1951 census.” Due to the above noted reasons this large number of people left out of 1951 NRC and their next generations in later stage have been and are being harassed in many ways.
More than one lakh Muslims were pushed to East Pakistan till 1961 due to their names having been left out of 1951 NRC. This problem turned terrible after the Indo-China war in 1962. There was a rumour that the Muslim people residing in and around Tezpur hoisted Pakistani flag during the war. After the war, an inquiry committee was constituted under the leadership of the then CBI Director B.N. Mallik on the orders of the then Home Minister Gulzarilal Nanda, with the approval of Prime Minister. The committee submitted a prejudiced report prepared under political conspiracy, stating that there were two lakh thirty thousand Pakistani citizens in various areas of Assam. Despite having a suitable Act at that time in India for identification and deportation of foreigners, a particular programme was introduced, which was applicable only in Assam on the basis of the said report. That programme was named PIP (Prevention of Infiltration from Pakistan) in search of Pakistani citizens. A section of the particular programme introduced under the initiative of the then Chief Minister of Assam, Mr. Bimala Prasad Chaliha reads as follows:
1. Rising of special units of the state police for dealing with infiltration;
2. Special tribunals were to be established for speedy disposal of cases;
3. The Government of India would meet the expenses of these units; and
4. More than 200 Border Watch posts were to be raised at a cost of Rs.6000 each.
It is noted that from 1964 to 1969 the Government of India spent Rs. five crore for the implementation of this programme. (Ref. Dr. S.U. Ahmed: Muslims in Assam, page 124)
In a book, Abahelito Asom, written by Anjan Sarma, it is mentioned that within the period of 1964 to 1966, one lakh eighty thousand one hundred seven Muslim people were deported as Pakistani nationals. According to the Government data, within the period of 1951 to 1969, three lakh forty thousand Muslims were ousted from Assam.
As per another Government report, at the time of brief correction of voters list of 1966, names of two lakh twenty three thousand Muslims were deleted from the voters list. In the above mentioned two decades Muslim people of Assam were widely harassed under the pretext of Pakistani nationals. Some Muslim organisations in the leadership of Jamiat Ulama-i- Hind, submitted a memorandum with some specific instances and documents of police atrocities against the Muslims in the name Pakistanis to the Chief Minister of Assam, Mr. Bimala Prasad Chaliha for suspension of the process. Thirty-three MLAs of the then 72-member Assembly, including Devakanta Baruah, Fakaruddin Ali Ahmed, Moinul Haque Chaudhury, and Sarat Ch. Sinha put their signatures on the memorandum. (Ref. Dr. S.U. Ahmed).
A skilful parliamentarian of Assam, Mr. Hem Baruah delivered his lecture in the Parliament for stopping harassment of Muslims in the name of Pakistani nationals. At last the Government admitted the course of harassment of Muslims in Assam by the police and informed the president of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Assam branch through a Govt. letter vide no. PBL.70/66/173 Dtd. 11th July 1969, assuring that the identification and deportation process of foreigners shall be initiated through the law in vogue instead of PIP programme. Thereafter till 1979 the Muslims of Assam comparatively lived a peaceful life without any harassment in the name of citizenship but at later stage this problem took a horrible dimension. These people again faced large scale harassment, falling prey to a deep political conspiracy from 1979.
For the first time in Assam, a non-Congress Government was formed under the leadership of Golap Borbora on 28th March 1978. It is mentioned in an article written by Golap Borbora titled Bidesi Bitaron Andolon Byartho Hoisil Kio, Etiao Bastob Samadhanor Upay Ki? After a few months of taking charge by the new Government, Mr. S.L. Sakdhar, the then Chief Election Commissioner sent a circular to warn the new government: “Many foreign infiltrators have enrolled their names in the voter’s list of Assam. If the number of voters increases in this way then at the end of the century the population of Assam shall be double and most of the increased population are foreigners.” Though Mr. Borbora has not written in his article, yet it is mentioned in the circular that “under the patronage of some political parties those names of foreigners have been entered in the voters list.” So there is no doubt that the above noted circular is a politically motivated one.
At the end of the year 1978, a non-political movement started under the leadership of All Assam Students Union (AASU) for the socio-economic development of Assam. The AASU leaders at the initial stage did not demand anything regarding foreigners or Bangladeshi issue. In the month of July 1979 they submitted a charter of demand to the then Chief Minister Golap Borbora comprising 22 clauses; and in the clause 7 of which they included the issue of expulsion of Bahiragata, outsiders (any person outside Assam).
At that time, sudden death of MP Hiralal Patowary led to a by-election for Mangaldai HP constituency. For that purpose a summery revision of electoral roll was to be instituted. During the process, the State Election Commission deleted forty five thousand names of Muslims from the electoral roll of that constituency alone as per the direction of State Government on the basis of the circular of S.L. Sakdhar, as mentioned by Mr. Borbora in his article. Taking the opportunity of this situation, the Saffron leaders were successful in diverting the so-called non-political movement of AASU to a definite direction against the religious and linguistic minority in Assam and thus the demand of expulsion of Minorities in the name of Bangladeshis instead of Bohiragata came up to the head of the charter.
In this perspective, the activists of the movement again started harassing lakhs of Muslims by complaining against them as Bangladeshis. It was seen that violating the existing rules and regulations, a single person sitting in Guwahati, made complaints against thousands of Muslims living far away only on the basis of their title as Ali, Ahmed, Sheikh, Miah, etc. Some renowned indigenous Muslims like Sayed Abdul Malik and Lily Begum were not left out of this process. Subsequently, a series of drama was performed by the Government officials in the name of hearing against those fake and baseless complaints. Hearing was conducted in the absence of the complainer, which is not permitted by the law. Moreover, no documents like Copy of NRC, 66 voters list, valid land documents, school certificates, etc. could satisfy the hearing officers. An arbitrary situation existed in and around the hearing centres. Even the feeble sick and pregnant women were not relieved in this process. Many incidents of delivery right in the hearing centres happened. In the process of such inexpressible circumstances, those identified as foreigners were inhumanly despatched to the Bangladesh border without following any international rules and regulations.
General election was imposed in Assam in 1983 like titans falling upon the ghost. The minorities had to become victim for taking part in the election against the opinion of the majority community. The massacres like Nellie, Gohpur, Chhamaria, Chaulkhoa, etc. were perpetrated. The role played by Assam as well as all India minority organisations and some neutral press media, which raised all the facts and figures occurred in Assam at national and international levels, led the Central Government to do something against the situation. On 15th October 1983 the Government passed an ordinance enacting a rule of raising objection as foreigner against any person and thus unnecessary harassment of minorities in the name of foreigner was diminished to a little extent. Later the ordinance was replaced by passing the IMDT Act-1983 in the Parliament. Gradually the agitating situation of Assam became cool. In the mid night of 14th August 1985 Assam Accord was needlessly signed between the Central Government and AASU leader.
As a result general election was declared by dissolving Hiteswar Saikia-led Congress Government. The politics of Assam was polarised between two camps of minority and majority. In the election Asom Gana Parisad (AGP) came to power. United Minority Front (UMF), the only minority political party, was placed second by winning 17 seats. In this period the minority community did not confront any certain harassment on the question of citizenship though they were devoid of Government assistance and opportunities. Under the cunning trick of Congress and internal power centric fighting, the UMF gradually became weak. Taking the opportunity Congress came back to existence among the minorities and got absolute majority in general election, 1991 with their massive support and thus formed Government under the leadership of Hiteswar Saikia. During this period the minority people obtained some opportunity in respect of lower grade Government services, loans, etc. but the question of their citizenship was again raised. Assam became tense and turbulent towards the end of Saikia’s tenure.
(to be concluded)