The public sentiment regarding Assam's policy on deporting illegal migrants is largely supportive, with a prevalent nationalist viewpoint emphasizing cultural preservation and national security. Many praise the state government's decisive actions and leadership, viewing it as a long-overdue measure against illegal immigration, particularly from Bangladesh. However, there are critical voices expressing concerns over potential human rights violations and communal biases. The discourse highlights a strong appreciation for the policy's intent while also acknowledging some apprehension about its implementation and broader impacts.

Assam Government

Bangladeshi Migrants

Assamese Citizens

Most of the Bangladeshi influx into Assam started before the 1971 war. So those who settled here, got married, had children and now their children have jobs including being teachers. Now the question is who decides or how to decide the cut off date for which bangadeshi stays and who is deported? Now why they were not deported earlier? The inaction of the previous governments. There was a huge agitation for deportation in the 80s but vote bank politics prevailed

Alz_Own

A 51-year-old former government teacher from Assam’s Morigaon district, who was picked up from his home on Friday night by the border police, has been forced out of Indian territory along the Bangladesh border, claims a video posted on Facebook on Tuesday by a Bangladeshi journalist.

In the video recorded by journalist Mostafuzur Tara from Bangladesh’s Rangpur division, Khairul Islam alleged that he was among 14 people “pushed” into Bangladesh by India’s Border Security Force on Tuesday morning.

He and the others are reported to be in no man’s land, between the two countries.

In the video, Islam is standing in a field somewhere in Kurigram district, Bangladesh – the location was confirmed by the superintendent of police of the district, Mohammad Mahfuzur Rahman.

“I told the Assam police that I am a teacher and asked them to respect me,” Islam told the journalist. “My hands were tied like I was a thief and I was made to sit in the bus. Around 4 am, I reached here. A total of 14 people were pushed into Bangladesh by the BSF.”

A government teacher at Thengsali Khandapukhuri primary school until last December, Islam was declared a foreigner in 2016 by a tribunal.

The tribunal’s decision was upheld in 2018 by the Gauhati High Court. Islam was taken to the Matia detention centre, where he spent two years before he was released on bail in August 2020. His challenge to the High Court order is pending in the Supreme Court.

The last hearing of Islam’s case in the Supreme Court was on December 17, 2024, according to court records seen by Scroll.

On May 23, Islam was picked up from his home in Khandapukhuri village by the Assam police. He was among 14 people, all declared foreigners by Assam’s foreigners tribunals, who were re-arrested from Morigaon and Jorhat districts and sent to the Matia detention camp.

Foreigner tribunals are quasi-judicial bodies unique to Assam, which rule on citizenship cases. They have been accused of arbitrariness and bias, and declaring people foreigners on the basis of minor spelling mistakes, a lack of documents or lapses in memory.

“I was born here, my father and mother were also born here,” Islam told reporters on Saturday in Assam before being taken to Matia detention centre. “I am a school teacher. I did my schooling and college here. They have framed me as a foreigner without any wrongdoing. I am saying 100 times that I am Assamese.”

In Bangladesh, Islam told the journalist that on Monday, around 3 pm, he was forcibly taken from the Matia detention camp.

A person from the Matia camp, who declined to be identified fearing for their safety, told Scroll on Monday evening that several inmates had been loaded into three buses, with blindfolds over their eyes. “The border police and central forces had come for them,” they said.

Islam told the Bangladeshi journalist: “As I was not willing to come, they beat me up severely.”

Islam’s family members confirmed to Scroll that the person in the video was him. His wife Rita Khanam broke down on seeing the video. “How can they do this when the case is pending in the Supreme Court?” she said.

On May 10, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had announced that several inmates of the Matia detention centre in Assam – Rohingya refugees and undocumented migrants from Bangladesh – had been “pushed back” into Bangladesh as part of a nationwide operation by the Indian government.

opinion_discarder

Dapper-Bad7215

i_am_weaker

Isn't this fellow going to make a swift u turn as soon as the BSF leaves and come back right inside India?

How did he manage to get a govt teacher job? The situation is dire in Assam.

Peacetime-Liberal

We would still be exploited. Case in point
The barauni refinery was constructed to process crude extracted  from Assam just because the petroleum minister at that time was from Bihar.
Nehru's freight equalisation policy made this easier
With retired relatives from ONGC in the exec position ,I can vouch for the fact that job vacancies until the early nineties in say ONGC for all cadres were advertised in North Indian newspapers 
The local and eligible candidates did not even have a chance to apply.
It was only in 1993 that ONGC took out a recruitment drive under a one time NE quota and geologists and engineers were hired. This came because of the pressure groups. Not that Assamese engineers were not eligible...but they never got a level playing field.

DinDelhi

Bro nobody’s gonna even look at this post because truth is quite hard to digest. Good and accurate research my friend

[deleted]

Upon a recent reading of ULFA: The Mirage of Dawn by Rajeev Bhattacharya, a few things that stayed with me:

1. ULFA's motive by the end became that of raising a sovereign Northeast alleging "colonialism" by the Indian state. 

2. Paresh Barua's involvement with Bangladeshi groups and ISI, particularly the fact that he has promised them that he's not against Bangladeshis and just wants to fight the Indian state is of particular peculiarity. 

3. Anup Chetia, on camera, said that Parag Das and MASS were planted and supported by ULFA.

kimda4

Ulfa wasn't the first to take up arms, it was NSCN, ulfa came much much later.

No-Chipmunk-3142

He mattered little in the scheme of things for the army...and was an OGW along with MASS.
Also he criticised ULFA for the random killings......btw he was a brilliant sociologist

Parag Das murder by Indian state is a conspiracy theory

He's a journalist of many decades of experience, you say. Is he a credible journalist? Then I would believe him.

He has power to implement that but instead he's doing politics.

Bring president rules if necessary rather than doing politics

BROWN-MUNDA_

Fencing is of national security. You dont nessecerily need state permission in this case. They will do it anyway sooner or later. Its just that they are milking every juice out of it first.

DearInvestigator1244

I have a question. Does fencing even work. I mean it's pretty easy to dig a tunnel. And also what about the ones that already came in

7_feet_vlogger

Lots of reason, linguistic, ethnic and cultural differences being chief among them. Essentially, what you essentially got were several different ethnic groups who were lumped together into one state without their consent. It took decades and lots of fighting to gain statehood. At least in our case (Meghalaya) it went off diplomatically.

Aeso3

SumanjitBasumatary

fireflameflava

Once the British were able to take over Burma, they made it clear that they had nointention of ruling the country. However, the British started following the policy of annexing the various territories so that they had more territory as a part of British India.

The Ahom rule in Assam was terminated after the Treaty of Yandabo came into effect. Lower Assam was brought directly under the British dominion because it bore high revenue income. Upper Assam suffered a lot under the Burmese invasion. People lost their confidence in the government and the administration collapsed. It became essential for Upper Assam to be under the governance of the military. Appointed Senior Commissioner of Lower Assam was David Scott and Colonel Richard was appointed as the Junior Commissioner of Upper Assam. The people of Assam were very happy with the British administration in the beginning. Common people now hoped for peace and prosperity, after suffering a lot during the Burmese invasion. Ruling classes thought that their power and privileges would be secured under British rule. But this was not to happen. The British cared for their own prosperity and their own business. People could now see that the British administration was different. Soon people were unhappy with the administration.

After occupying Assam, the British divided it into two provinces: Upper Assam and Lower Assam. Kamrup, Nowgang and parts of Darrang, with Gauhati (now Guwahati) as its headquarters, constituted lower Assam. Upper Assam comprised the other parts of Darrang, from Biswanath to the river Buridihing with its headquarters at Rangpur. Assam was directly Administered by British India. While ( NEFA) now Arunachal Pradesh was an excluded territory  of British India . NEFA was never a part of Assam to begin with.

mountain_voyage

Because British joined most NE States with assam for ease of administration. But its human nature to fall in love with different layers of independency and separation. Every human group likes having some kind of autonomy. And there was linguistic issue as well. The government had pressure from the Assamese people to protect their language by making it official and it was very difficult to convince each tribes. A lot of tribes didn't have any problem with Assamese but some tribes didn't like. For them government even had the provision for  multiple official languages. But these all had to be done democratically by passing bills in the parliament so its a very very slow process. 

But some states were somewhat okay and wouldn't have separated if their demands were met. But its the post independence underdeveloped era. No technology, no money, no globalisation , full poverty. assam couldn't even fulfill its own people's demands. So those states had no other option but to separate. Secondly the government in the Centre and state also realized that it would be so much easier to administer this region if all of them were separated.
During this time entire region was at crisis. All major movements happened im very close proximity to each other with regards to date or year. During this time Everyone were asking their own different demands. So many different demands couldn't be solved by a backward Assam that time. Neither assam had the law enforcement power to maintain law and order, there was darkness in assam no electricity as well. It was as backward as African or sub saharan countries.

shrekkit2

The simple reason is that groups like Nagas, Khasis, Garos, Mizos are their own sub-nationalities and deserved their own state within India, it was unrealistic from the start to conjoin them under one single administration. You cannot compare them to most current tribes in Assam who have either lost their sub national identity or do not have as strong of a political and cultural movement. The exception are the Bodos, Kacharis and the Karbis who not surprisingly are still fighting for either a full statehood or more autonomy. 

Assam would be better off if it was further balkanized had not one particular community form an attachment with the idea of the state. Look at Meghalaya, no particular ethnic group has an exceptional emotional attachment to the idea of Meghalaya, all ethnic groups would be happy to part ways and divide the state into 2 or even 3 states. Had the Assamese mainstream also not had such strong attachment to the idea of Assam , Assam could have further been divided into at least 3 - 4 more states.  The indigenous people would be much better protected and the idea of Assam would be preserved as a region and a regional identity not as a hard state boundary identity and would foster a more united Northeast India. Assam was never a political identity to begin with, many of the things traditionally and historically associated with Assam is not necessarily of the current Assam State. 

Most NE learned person be it mizo, Naga, Bodo or a Khasi would be open to the idea of Assam as a regional identity, culturally and geographically, much like "Indo-china"  within the world and not as a political entity.

Masimasu

It's mainly because of divide and rule policy of Indian govt learnt from from the British. As after independence separatist movement in Assam and northeast started. Hence to weaken these movements Indian govt did that in lieu of other issues like culture , Language etc. It was also recently in J&amp;K and Ladakh. And I don't see anything wrong in it.

The Assam government plans to expedite the deportation of illegal immigrants using a 1950 law, bypassing traditional legal processes.

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