'Invasion by people of one religion' altering demography across Assam: Himanta

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed on Tuesday that the indigenous communities of the state are facing ''invasion'' from people of ''one religion'', who are allegedly encroaching on land in different parts to alter the demography of those areas.

He said the government's eviction drives, through which over 1.19 lakh bighas have been cleared since 2021, are a major step towards checking this alleged attempt by migrants to gain a political foothold in Assamese-majority areas.

The chief minister did not specify who was making this alleged attempt, but most of the evicted people are Bengali-speaking Muslims.

Addressing a press conference here, Sarma said that it has been found while conducting eviction drives that the encroachers are mostly people with own land in their native districts, and yet they move to settle illegally in distant parts of the state.

"Forest destruction is one of the issues. These people migrate to change the demography of that place," he claimed.

Sarma said that as these people migrate from one part of the state and settle in another part, they enrol themselves as voters in the new place.

And once they grow in numbers to thousands, they become a sizable vote bank, and the political leaders do not act against their initial encroachment of forest or government land, the chief minister claimed.

"All these people are of one religion," he said, without elaborating.

"This is not just a land jihad, but a jihad to finish off the Assamese people... After demographic invasion in lower and middle Assam, it is now happening in upper Assam," the chief minister said.

Citing instances of people moving to settle in places far from their native districts within the state, Sarma said, "Residents of South Salmara-Mankachar (western Assam) can go to West Bengal if they need better opportunity, it is so much closer. But they are travelling hundreds of kilometers to settle in Lakhimpur (northern tip)." This demographic change will be visible in the voters' list in the state's northern and upper Assam in the coming years, he cautioned.

Sarma alleged that these encroachers have been enjoying the patronage of the Congress.

"We see that in a place, votes secured by the Congress go up suddenly. If we calculate this increase in numbers, it will be the same as the demographic change that has taken place there," he told reporters.

Asked whether foreign forces are involved in this, Sarma claimed that the Congress' social media is being 'boosted' by foreign handles.

The CM said he last month provided details of 5,000 social media accounts of the opposition party being operated from abroad. ''You will see that the people who criticise me now on social media are from places like Chittagong (in Bangladesh),'' he said.

Sarma added that it is for the district commissioner to strike out the names of the encroachers once evicted from the local voter list, as their names already appear in their native districts within the state.

When asked if a special intensive revision of the electoral roll could help in detecting illegal settlers, Sarma said it would not serve the purpose in this context of demographic change.

The updated National Register of Citizens (NRC), which is yet to be notified, will also not help in this regard, as it is apprehended that names of foreigners have been included in it due to ''lack of government mechanism'' in certain areas to check it, he added.

"In places like South Salmara and Hailakandi, there is no mechanism. The local person in authority won't identify his own people as illegal foreigners. Even if we transfer someone from a different district, they are forced to request for transfer soon," he said on using NRC for detecting infiltrators.

Dealing with the situation in Assam needs 'improvisation', and 'strategies have to work', Sarma maintained.

"The answer to demographic invasion is not NRC…demography is a social science subject, not a legal issue," he said.

"The answer to checking this attempt at demographic change is an uncompromising government and leadership that will work to evict them. The government won't allow land to be taken over, indigenous people shouldn't rent out their property or employ them, and our people have to start doing their own work," Sarma asserted.

He said 1,19,548 bighas (160 sq km) of land has been cleared of encroachment since his government took over in May 2021, affecting about 50,000 people.

Of these, 84,743 bighas are forest land and 26,713 bighas are 'khas' or general government land, among other categories of land cleared, the chief minister added.

Sarma, presenting an audio-video clip of reforestation of cleared land and animals returning to their habitat, said the government was working for restoration of the natural balance and dismissed allegations of planning to hand over forest land to industrialists.

He added that another 63 lakh bighas, including 29 lakh bighas of forest land, are still under encroachment in the state, though some of the land is occupied by tribals who will be provided with ownership as per rules.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)