Western liberals (and third-world worshippers of W-Ls ) frequently emphasize the sacredness of the “sacred ancestral lands” of tribals. This is an effective strategy to put a stop to any mining or other activity that threatens to disturb the pristine environment in tribal lands. The idea is that the noble savages will stay that way forever. At times they may venture outside the reservation and pose for a few pictures with Dr Livingstone types. These “adventures of Tintin” stories will then be perused by the elite in the comfort of their wifi-enabled homes.
Now we have a case that (alleged) muslim migrants from Bangladesh are occupying the sacred lands of the Bodos. The Bodos are taking a (not so noble) savage like approach to the problem. Of course as far as civil society is concerned it is the evil Hindutva forces that are actually to blame (because tribals are by nature gentle people and can never ever inflict harm on others).
The inconvenient truth is that the current campaign of murder and mayhem draws directly from the original Bangal Kheda movement (in the 1960s) which was aimed at evicting all Bengalis (Hindus, Muslims) from Axom, just like Shiv Sena goons presently in Maharashtra are happy to beat up Biharis of all stripes.
These man-made tragedies by Gandhians with guns will keep on recurring, unless the patron saint ditches her comfy house in Delhi and heads out for the thousand-star Hotel Kokrajhar. It will be really worth her time to get involved and let the tribal (lions) and muslim (lamb) communities live once more in peace and harmony.
…….
Text of a statement issued by Civil Society Groups and Concerned Citizens
We, the undersigned, express our profound sense of grief and alarm
over the gruesome massacre of Bengali-speaking Muslims on 2nd May. This
most recent round of killings — in which 32 people, mostly women and
children have lost their lives— is another link in the long and bloody
sequence of ethnic cleansing being carried out by tribal Bodo militant
groups with impunity.
For years, Hindutva politics has successfully created the bogey of the
‘Bangladeshi’, rendering Muslims as suspects and targets, locked in a
perpetual battle with the tribal Bodos. In his rally at Silchar, the
BJP’s Prime Ministerial candidate reiterated precisely this. He said:
“There are two kinds of people who came from Bangladesh to Assam: those
brought as part of a political conspiracy for vote bank politics of a
particular party (Muslims) and others who were harassed in the
neighbouring country (Hindus). Those brought for vote bank politics and
smugglers must be pushed back, while the second category must be
accommodated.” (Silchar, 22nd February).
More recently, poll violence at Harbhanga polling booth of Gossaigaon
under 5-Kokrajhar LS(ST) Constituency was followed by a brutal police
crackdown on on the villagers of Harbhanga, Jamunatari, Balabara. Many
victims and conscious citizens in BTAD think that the incident of
Harbhanga Polling Booth was meticulously planned to teach non-Bodo
inhabitants a lesson for voting against the atrocious ruling
administration.
The immediate provocation for the 2nd May killings seem to have come
from the communal statement made by Pramila Rani Brahma, BPF (formerly
BLT, a terrorist militant organisation) legislator and former
Agricultural Minister of Assam who accused the Muslims of not voting for
the BPF candidate Chandan Brahma. She demanded that BPF (a Congress
Alliance partner in Assam State Government and ruling party in local
BTAD administration) should therefore support BJP.
Immediately after her statement, separate incidents of violence broke
out: a prominent Non-Bodo journalist of BTAD Mr. Dhananjoy Nath was
attacked; three people were killed on the spot at Narshingpara, and
another girl child injured;. at around 12:00am mid night, a heavily
armed militant group killed eight people and injured at least four
including women and children at Balapara. These were to be a prelude to
the mass killings that were to follow the next day, ie., 2nd of May,
2014, when a group of forty heavily armed militant set ablaze nearly 70
houses and killed about 21 people and severely injured many more in
Gampara near Gobardhana of Baksa district of BTAD area. Dead bodies are
still being recovered and the death toll will rise up considerably.
Mr. Siddique Ahmed, a minister in Assam government who has visited the
violence affected area of BTAD, has concluded that the members of BPF
were involved in the massacre, and has also demanded the arrest of Smt.
Pramila Rani Brahma. It has also come to light that guns provided to
forest officials have been used in the massacre, thus directing
suspicion towards Khampa Borgoyary, Deputy Chief of BTC and Executive
member of Forest Dept of BTC .
We therefore demand the following:
- An SIT headed by a serving IPS officer or Supreme Court judge
should be instituted. The state police and other security forces
deployed in BTAD which have miserably failed to provide security to
Non-Bodos and Muslims cannot be relied upon to fairly investigate this. - Pramila Rani Brahma should be arrested and prosecuted at the
earliest to instil confidence for the due course of law in the minds of
aggrieved families. - Investigate the role of Khampa Borgyoyari whose close aid Amiya
Brahma and others were arrested for carrying out the targeted killing. - Deploy more Paramilitary Forces to ensure security of the Non-Bodo peoples and particularly Muslims.
- Provide adequate compensation to the family of deceased and to
the injured persons and rehabilitate victims displaced by indiscriminate
violence. - Investigate and take strict action against police personnel responsible for the post-poll assault at Harbhanga village.
- Seize all illegal arms and ammunitions from the BTAD area without fail.
- Rework and revise the BTC accord so that the democratic aspirations of all sections of population residing in that area is met.
- The Election Commission should take notice of the public
statements by Pramila Rani Brahma — which apart from being provocative
also amount to a flagrant violation of model code of conduct.
……..
Link: http://www.outlookindia.com/article.aspx?290600
……
regards