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| Politics
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| Assam violence: |
| Assam violence: The politics of rehabilitation
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| INDIA
, 9-August-2012
0:27:19 AM |
| At a relief camp set up at the Bidyapur High School in Chirang, Assam, 55-year-old Abdul Jaleel is very angry when asked what he thinks about the demand of Bodo leaders and the BJP that only those with Indian identity papers among minorities at relief camps be allowed to go home.
Abdul has no papers to prove he is Indian. He says all his papers were burnt by those who attacked his village in the adjoining Chirang district 15 days ago, forcing all families to flee the village. Of the 3000 odd people who have taken refuge at this relief camp after ethnic violence rocked lower Assam since last month, almost 2000 are adults. They all live, with 1200 children, in five classrooms. Not one adult seems to have papers to prove identity.
Muslims like Abdul living in relief camps in the strife-torn Kokrajhar region face allegations that all of them are illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. In faraway New Delhi today, BJP leader LK Advani accused the Congress, which rules both at the Centre and in Assam, of indulging in vote-bank politics by allowing illegal immigrants to cross the border. This, he said, was the root cause of the riots that have torn Assam apart over the last month.
At Jantar Mantar in the capital, Mr Advani's party joined Bodo leaders at a dharna. Speaker after speaker said that while the Bodos are willing to accept those who came into Kokrajhar and other areas before the 1971 war, those who came thereafter are not welcome.
There are almost 400,000 displaced people in lower Assam crowding ill-equipped relief camps after they fled their villages as intense clashes broke out between Bodos and Bengali speaking settlers last month. About two-thirds of that massive number are Muslim. To segregate people at minority camps on the basis of when they crossed over will be an impossible task.
At the Bidyapur school camp an agitated Shahbuddin, 25, wants to know why this reporter is asking about identity papers. The mistrust runs deep.
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