Are we really serious about influx of Bangladeshi Muslims ? .... "Tomorrow it will be our optionless turn to serve them" ::: Naga Militants' body concerned !!

My few-day visit to Cachar belt of Assam and Jiribam region of Manipur in January-February 2025 left me flabbergasted about one thing 

- are we really serious about influx of Bangladeshi Muslims ?  

My doubts were set to rest when one gentleman told me: "You are in Hailakandi-Badarpur belt of Assam you will get a feel of Bangladesh". 

The numbers of Bengali Muslim population - often called Miya - has certainly increased manifold. 

Where are our Neta class -- BJP, Congress and of course openly 'infiltrators-friendly AIUDF' ?  

But the fact of the matter is the politics of Muslim appeasement seemed to have dominated the politics of Assam for quite sometime. 

Lt Gen S K Sinha, then Assam Governor,  after he raised the influx bogey was immediately dubbed as a the "BJP-RSS mole”.

The moot point is that every effort should be made to delink the illegal immigrants issue from helpless Bihari rickshawallahs in states like Nagaland or Mizoram. The Biharis and even those from Rajasthan will come back to the backyards in their states one day; the Bengali Muslims are permanent guests and future/present voters.

A book by a retired Naga bureaucrat Khekiye Sema 'Encountering Life - Antics of a Government Servant' ---- known for his flamboyance style says that the Bangladeshi Muslims have been perhaps "recklessly" harboured in the Dimapur region of Nagaland.

Hence the cautioning -- "Today they are our obedient servants. Tomorrow it will be our optionless turn to serve them". 

This optionless feature is already a reality. Get into a train at Badarpur moving towards Nagaland (Dimapur) and other hubs in Upper Assam such as Tinsukia and Dibrugarh; it is like a 'train in Bangladesh'.  

One sepoy who was posted from Silchar region to Mariani area of upper Assam experienced such a travel recently. 

"Unka apna hi bhasha chal raha tha... (They were all speaking in their own language)," he recalled adding the compartments after compartments were "full of women and men in Muslim attires and skullcaps".  

"There were a few Maulana types.... I could make out the propaganda and Narendra Modi-bashing was going on and on," he said.  

Growing 'Bengali Muslim' presence felt in parts of Upper Assam also

 

There are other tales linked to influx.

Around 2005, it was discovered that many ULFA leaders ran profit making hotel business in Dhaka and other places in Bangladesh. Other insurgent groups in north east also have always enjoyed the hospitality and strategic support of East Pakistan and also Bangladesh later.

The ISI of Pakistan and its cahoots -- the Jamait group in Bangladesh and a section of 'intelligence agencies' also played their roles. 

Surrendered ULFA lieutenant Abhinash Bordoloi had interacted with some visiting journalists from Delhi some years back. 

“ULFA just could not take any step regarding influx of Bangladeshis. The ISI-Bangladesh nexus to help ULFA continued for long and so is(was) the ULFA dilemma. ULFA has hardly targeted Bangladeshi Muslims while they did not hesitate to eliminate several Marwari, Bihari and other north Indian cutting across professions,” Bordoloi had told some of us.

Taking up a cause : Kitovi 

Lately the Working Committee of NNPGs through its media cell informed that the panel led by its convener N Kitovi Zhimomi held a joint meeting on February 14, 2025 and took a strong stance and unanimously decided to impose strict measures against business owners who prominently display religious names, such as Hindu Hotel, Muslim Hotel, Christian Hotel, Buddhist Hotel.

The statement said the decision was aimed at addressing and discouraging the commercialization of religious identities in the business sector.

On further inquiries, the NNPG (Kitovi group) sources admitted their main concern is about the growing number of Muslim hotels in Nagaland especially run by Bengali Muslims. 

"There is an intent in giving such names Muslim Hotel etc. It is a blatant message that we are here for Muslim population," a source said. 

Another NNPG source maintained - such naming also could mean --- come at this restaurant or eatery and you will get beef. 

This also implies we do not have pork because pork is prohibited for Muslims, the source added. 

The real issue is the gradual dominating presence of Bengali Muslims in most villages and agricultural areas in and around Dimapur township. 

Cachar valley !! 

In Assam, it is not a rocket science to assert that there are a huge number of Madrasas and several Muslim NGOs helping 'Bengali Muslims' directly or indirectly to find jobs, necessary government papers, residential proof certificates etc.

They say - the good old and also the pretty bad 'demographic threat' to indigenous inhabitants is back and is haunting the natives.

The Bangladeshi influx stands as a big menace for the state of Assam, the rest of north east India and even the rest of India. 

It may not be erroneous to suggest that Bangladeshis have found 'home-stays' even in places like Delhi, Mumbai and parts of Kerala.

The Naga Students' Federation (NSF) statement on the issue of influx had in April 2023 had called ".....  for a tough and honest government run by tough and honest leaders, tough and honest bureaucracy backed by tough and honest general public".

In other words they were calling for a vigilant society. 

In fact, Assam’s Nagaon to Daboka belt bordering Dimapur in Nagaland was already flooded with Bengali Muslims (by 1990s itself) and sons of the soil (Assamese) have been outnumbered. 

Natives believe that there is a sinister design in this demographic explosion; and sadly this got a huge bolster during the 1971 Bangladeshi struggle for freedom against Pakistan.

The modus operandi is following a fixed pattern. Once the 'illegal immigrants' are out from human reservoir called Bangladesh to this side of the border they settle for any manual work including household chores, daily wages on a comparatively much lesser wages than other Indian labourers. 

Within five years they would own a pan shop, start egg or fish business even taking stuff on four-wheel carts (thela) and in another 10 years they club themselves with influential middle class and soon become culturally organized and politically threatening to political parties.

In Dimapur, Bengali Muslims are doing thriving business in running auto rickshaws.

In Upper Assam, locals say there are a large number of Bengali Muslims now in the medical profession from nurses to doctors. So things are changing fast. 

Or else you will find women and children also get employment at cheap rates as domestic help and household chores.

Is Assam a lost case ? 

ends