- Anurag Pathak & Sourav Bhattacharya/ 3.11.2018
A group of six assailants in military fatigues, armed with sophisticated weapons, entered the Village Bisonimukh on two motorcycles, around 7.20 pm in the night. They rounded up five Bengali speaking people from the village, took them to Dhola-Sadia Bridge on a stream of Brahmaputra River, told them to face the stream and opened indiscriminate firing killing five on the spot before fleeing the scene under cover of darkness. The sixth, Shadeb Namashudra, survived as he fell into the stream.
What appears, in the first instance, is that the victims, who in fact were Bengali Hindus by religion, were mistaken by the assailants as Bangladeshi Muslims for their Bengali accent, and were killed.
The ghastly act, is apparently a rightwing political maneuver designed to incite a spree of sectarian violence against the immigrant minority in Assam. Malicious purpose is to polarize the political environment in the state through a communal divide on geo-communal-nationalist lines.
Despite its denial of having any role in the crime, ULFA, a rightwing outfit in Assam that has close association with ruling BJP, is believed to be behind the incident. Its leader, Mrinal Hazarika was detained by Panbazar police on suspicion of his involvement in the crime, while its another leader JIten Dutta was later arrested by Gaurisagar Police in connection with the killings.
Assam, a border state in North-East of India, has a chequered history of such geo-political strife with deep communal-national coloration. As capitalist development has promoted immigration to Assam, the sectarian rightwing forces succeeded in instilling fear of being marginalized in their own land among the local populace. Rightwing forces have thrived upon this fear and divide as the opportunist Stalinist left failed to challenge the sectarian strife by uniting the working class on internationalist lines.
As the rightwing chauvinist violence claimed its victims in Assam, the rightwing forces in West Bengal started tapping vicious Bengali chauvinism exhorting to revenge for the killings of Bengalis. This drumbeat has got a unique political rhythm in the accidental backdrop of the victims belonging to hindu community.
For the fear of losing its support among the poor sections of hindu community in Assam, ULFA seems to be denying its role in the crime while its associate BJP and its outfits are seeking an opportunity in the incident to find their way among the supporters of ULFA and wash their own face of the rigors of the crime.
North-East Linguistic Ethnic Coordination Committee (NELECC), an RSS led outfit, condemned the killings, accusing ULFA for the same. To be sure, the opposition of the outfit is not to the killings themselves but for the Hindus becoming its victim. NELECC has campaigning for inclusion of Hindus, while at the same time exclusion of Muslims among the Bangladeshi immigrants to Assam.
Reacting to the Tinsukia shootings, leader of rightwing Hindu Karnti Dal, Mithun Debnath said, "ULFA (I) has let down the whole of Assam through this barbaric act. These cowards didn't have the guts to kill Bangladeshi people. The people whom they killed are the indigenous Hindu-Bengali speaking people of Assam. We condemn the barbaric act."
Rajen Gohain, leader of BJP and the Minister of State for Railways, claimed that, “The constituencies of Raha, Nagaon and Jagiroad should be recovered from Bangladeshi-Muslims". He further added, "If Assam does not welcome Hindu Bangladeshis, the state will be destroyed by the Muslim Bangladeshis. The Assamese community will become the slave of the Bangladeshi Muslims. Shall we take a stand against the Mughals or shall we take a stand against our brothers?"
What is indisputable is that not only ULFA but all forces of the rightwing that include the AGP and BJP, had been trumpeting for the ethno-nationalist politics in Assam, for decades. The more recent vigorous campaign for NRC in the State, that found support among all sections of ruling bourgeoisie in the country, has been the chief instrument of revitalizing the communal-nationalist strife. Though the same is directed chiefly against Bangladeshi Muslims but it takes within its folds the Bengali immigrants too. While the RSS led outfits target Muslim immigrants, especially from Bangladesh, a whole barrage of local outfits target all immigrants to Assam.
Given the domination of rightwing parties in West Bengal too, a backlash against the killings in Assam, is threatening the immigrants in West Bengal.
Five rural poor, three of whom belong to a single family, were shot dead by unidentified gunmen on Thursday, November 1, in Sadia-Saikhowaghat of Kherbari in Tinsukia district of Assam, while the sixth survived injured.
A group of six assailants in military fatigues, armed with sophisticated weapons, entered the Village Bisonimukh on two motorcycles, around 7.20 pm in the night. They rounded up five Bengali speaking people from the village, took them to Dhola-Sadia Bridge on a stream of Brahmaputra River, told them to face the stream and opened indiscriminate firing killing five on the spot before fleeing the scene under cover of darkness. The sixth, Shadeb Namashudra, survived as he fell into the stream.
What appears, in the first instance, is that the victims, who in fact were Bengali Hindus by religion, were mistaken by the assailants as Bangladeshi Muslims for their Bengali accent, and were killed.
The ghastly act, is apparently a rightwing political maneuver designed to incite a spree of sectarian violence against the immigrant minority in Assam. Malicious purpose is to polarize the political environment in the state through a communal divide on geo-communal-nationalist lines.
Despite its denial of having any role in the crime, ULFA, a rightwing outfit in Assam that has close association with ruling BJP, is believed to be behind the incident. Its leader, Mrinal Hazarika was detained by Panbazar police on suspicion of his involvement in the crime, while its another leader JIten Dutta was later arrested by Gaurisagar Police in connection with the killings.
Assam, a border state in North-East of India, has a chequered history of such geo-political strife with deep communal-national coloration. As capitalist development has promoted immigration to Assam, the sectarian rightwing forces succeeded in instilling fear of being marginalized in their own land among the local populace. Rightwing forces have thrived upon this fear and divide as the opportunist Stalinist left failed to challenge the sectarian strife by uniting the working class on internationalist lines.
As the rightwing chauvinist violence claimed its victims in Assam, the rightwing forces in West Bengal started tapping vicious Bengali chauvinism exhorting to revenge for the killings of Bengalis. This drumbeat has got a unique political rhythm in the accidental backdrop of the victims belonging to hindu community.
For the fear of losing its support among the poor sections of hindu community in Assam, ULFA seems to be denying its role in the crime while its associate BJP and its outfits are seeking an opportunity in the incident to find their way among the supporters of ULFA and wash their own face of the rigors of the crime.
North-East Linguistic Ethnic Coordination Committee (NELECC), an RSS led outfit, condemned the killings, accusing ULFA for the same. To be sure, the opposition of the outfit is not to the killings themselves but for the Hindus becoming its victim. NELECC has campaigning for inclusion of Hindus, while at the same time exclusion of Muslims among the Bangladeshi immigrants to Assam.
Reacting to the Tinsukia shootings, leader of rightwing Hindu Karnti Dal, Mithun Debnath said, "ULFA (I) has let down the whole of Assam through this barbaric act. These cowards didn't have the guts to kill Bangladeshi people. The people whom they killed are the indigenous Hindu-Bengali speaking people of Assam. We condemn the barbaric act."
Rajen Gohain, leader of BJP and the Minister of State for Railways, claimed that, “The constituencies of Raha, Nagaon and Jagiroad should be recovered from Bangladeshi-Muslims". He further added, "If Assam does not welcome Hindu Bangladeshis, the state will be destroyed by the Muslim Bangladeshis. The Assamese community will become the slave of the Bangladeshi Muslims. Shall we take a stand against the Mughals or shall we take a stand against our brothers?"
What is indisputable is that not only ULFA but all forces of the rightwing that include the AGP and BJP, had been trumpeting for the ethno-nationalist politics in Assam, for decades. The more recent vigorous campaign for NRC in the State, that found support among all sections of ruling bourgeoisie in the country, has been the chief instrument of revitalizing the communal-nationalist strife. Though the same is directed chiefly against Bangladeshi Muslims but it takes within its folds the Bengali immigrants too. While the RSS led outfits target Muslim immigrants, especially from Bangladesh, a whole barrage of local outfits target all immigrants to Assam.
Given the domination of rightwing parties in West Bengal too, a backlash against the killings in Assam, is threatening the immigrants in West Bengal.
Ruling BJP, that is primarily, if not solely, responsible for the killings in Assam, is attempting to incite a violent reaction in West Bengal to the Assam incident. While in Assam it is accusing its own associate ULFA to derive mileage against it among Assamese Hindus, in West Bengal it is propagating the dastardly act as handiwork of Bangladeshi immigrants.
Mamta Banerjee, the leader of Bengali nationalism, likewise, is seeking opportunity in the killings, to shore up her position among Bengali Hindus, trumpeting for Bengali regionalism.
Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, alongside the leaders of Opposition, issued routine condemnation of the violence and condolence messages for the grieving families of the victims.
This ritual of denouncing violence, however cannot obscure the underlying reality that the menacing violence supplies the lifeblood to the reactionary politics of all bourgeois rightwing parties and leaders. Instead of being motivated for any good by such predatory acts and making any efforts to curb them, these leaders only set out to milk the opportunity for their sectarian political motives, often adding fuel to the fire, instead.
Sinister divisive politics has been the chief instrument for bourgeois rightwing parties and leaders to keep themselves in power by dividing the working and toiling people in narrow lanes of identity based upon region, religion, language, ethnicity and nationality.
Tourism, one of the components of Assam’s economy, would be adversely affected by the violence. Tourists from West Bengal are the customers to the tourism industry in Assam. Alongside, the immigrants from Bangladesh and West Bengal, both comprise a considerable part of the labour force in Assam.
In times of economic shrinkage heading towards an impending crisis, the diehard rightwing forces have become more desperate than ever to defend their rule with redoubled efforts through the methods of terror, violence and bloodshed.
Despite all hubbub against immigration, the fact goes that the globally integrating economic life is rendering these reactionary political forces connected to the national state and nationalism, more and more obtuse.
The politics of violence and bloodshed thrives, not despite of these leaders, but positively because of them. Violence and bloodshed is the continuity of their reactionary politics designed to keep themselves in power. Needless to say that the workers and poor are always the first casualty, under the axe of malevolent politics, that serves not them but their class enemies.
The workers of Assam and West Bengal must immediately join hands to oppose the creepy bourgeois rightwing, chauvinist politics of ‘divide and rule’. They must close their ranks with each other as part of their class conscious effort to assimilate themselves into the ranks of the international working class.
Working class must reject and transcend all sectarian divides to forge class unity on the basis of a socialist-internationalist program. While the forces of bourgeois rightwing strive to keep the cramping walls of bourgeois establishment intact by inducing the narrow divides in the ranks of working and toiling people, the working class must open a united offensive for destruction of capitalism.
Mamta Banerjee, the leader of Bengali nationalism, likewise, is seeking opportunity in the killings, to shore up her position among Bengali Hindus, trumpeting for Bengali regionalism.
Chief Minister of Assam, Sarbananda Sonowal, alongside the leaders of Opposition, issued routine condemnation of the violence and condolence messages for the grieving families of the victims.
This ritual of denouncing violence, however cannot obscure the underlying reality that the menacing violence supplies the lifeblood to the reactionary politics of all bourgeois rightwing parties and leaders. Instead of being motivated for any good by such predatory acts and making any efforts to curb them, these leaders only set out to milk the opportunity for their sectarian political motives, often adding fuel to the fire, instead.
Sinister divisive politics has been the chief instrument for bourgeois rightwing parties and leaders to keep themselves in power by dividing the working and toiling people in narrow lanes of identity based upon region, religion, language, ethnicity and nationality.
Tourism, one of the components of Assam’s economy, would be adversely affected by the violence. Tourists from West Bengal are the customers to the tourism industry in Assam. Alongside, the immigrants from Bangladesh and West Bengal, both comprise a considerable part of the labour force in Assam.
In times of economic shrinkage heading towards an impending crisis, the diehard rightwing forces have become more desperate than ever to defend their rule with redoubled efforts through the methods of terror, violence and bloodshed.
Despite all hubbub against immigration, the fact goes that the globally integrating economic life is rendering these reactionary political forces connected to the national state and nationalism, more and more obtuse.
The politics of violence and bloodshed thrives, not despite of these leaders, but positively because of them. Violence and bloodshed is the continuity of their reactionary politics designed to keep themselves in power. Needless to say that the workers and poor are always the first casualty, under the axe of malevolent politics, that serves not them but their class enemies.
The workers of Assam and West Bengal must immediately join hands to oppose the creepy bourgeois rightwing, chauvinist politics of ‘divide and rule’. They must close their ranks with each other as part of their class conscious effort to assimilate themselves into the ranks of the international working class.
Working class must reject and transcend all sectarian divides to forge class unity on the basis of a socialist-internationalist program. While the forces of bourgeois rightwing strive to keep the cramping walls of bourgeois establishment intact by inducing the narrow divides in the ranks of working and toiling people, the working class must open a united offensive for destruction of capitalism.
No comments:
Post a Comment