In this forum we have read two articles on Assam crisis sent by Farida Majid. Here is a third one forwarded to me by Gautam Choudhury, one of my poet friends from West Bengal. All these three articles basically convey the same message. Sushanta Kar's article is a little different as it makes an attempt to look at the problems at the grass root level. After reading all these three articles my impression is that there has never been any concerted efforts to increase the Muslim population in Assam using the strategy of infiltration of Bangladeshi Muslims. Push-back figures and numbers of refugees in various refugee camps point to the fact that the number of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh has been highly exaggerated. It is really interesting to know that even the local Muslims in Assam have been insisting on Govt.'s stopping illegal immigration from Bangladesh. It is simply a matter of economics given the fact that job opportunities there are not good at all.
I am in complete agreement with one of these three articles that the rightist groups have been doing a great disservice to the nation by creating and capitalizing on the crisis. For the political benefit they are making foes out of friends. If it goes on, Assam may reach a state of communal and religious discord from which a return may be impossible. As I have warned earlier many a time, divisive forces like militant Islamists thrive on such crises.
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