When Rome was burning Nero was fiddling, when Gujarat was burning the "secularists" were holding anti-Sangh rallies in Ahmedabad, when Assam is smouldering, Tarun Gogoi is twiddling his fingers and one doesn't know where the "secularists" have vanished en masse. No photogenic horror a la Qutubddin Ansari is hitting the front pages of newspapers. No "secularist" is flying to Guwahati to salvage terrified Biharis amidst media glamour. No "secularist" is venturing to Nalbari, Tinsukia or Dhuliajan to find out whether the afflicted Biharis have a tent to live in. No "secularist" is turning his blood into ink to churn out article after article to say why ULFA's Paresh Barua should be indicted at the International Court of Justice for "Nazi-like racist crimes." Why are the peaceniks and "left-liberals" not demonstrating on the streets of Dispur unlike in Gandhinagar?

Is it because it takes more liver than the "secularists" have, in confronting AK-56 trotting ULFA extremists? Only Union minister of state for home Swami Chinmayananda, Cabinet minister Dr C.P. Thakur and his deputy Tapan Sikdar, all of the BJP, have dared to go to the disturbed state and try douse the fires of separatism. The "secularists" have neither visited the state nor condemned Tarun Gogoi or the ISI or Bangladesh. And Laloo Prasad Yadav (beset for the first time with a problem beyond "secularism") has only blamed the Centre, conveniently keeping silent about the real culprits.

This is not the first time that the once Elysian haven of Assam is on the simmer, nor are these assaults merely anti-Bihari. The banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has served an ultimatum on all Hindi-speaking people to quit Assam. It is thus exploiting the volatility to shore up its secessionist agenda for which it was meticulously tutored by the Pakistani ISI. In November 2000, ULFA had mounted a similar bloody campaign of terror against Bihari migrant labour and Marwari traders in Bongaigaon district leaving a trail of 60 deaths in five weeks. In 1990, the ULFA got pitchforked into the limelight by targeting tea and oil industry executives.

The casualty figure of over 60 Bihari lives lost (and massive property destroyed) might become obsolete by the time it appears in print. With the Tarun Gogoi government merely twiddling its fingers and the Congress high command in a nonchalant mode, the situation might turn worse. But what explains the utter silence of the "secular" cabal (read Congress, Communists and Communalists) who were holding anti-Sangh rallies every second day in Ahmedabad during the Gujarat riots?

On the surface of it what began as a squabbling over some Group-D jobs in the railways in Assam have snowballed into a major showdown. Some Bihari students were prevented by local candidates from appearing in Guwahati Railway Recruitment Test for Northeast Frontier Railway in Maligaon (Assam) on November 9. This might appear a grossly unfair act, but only to those not looking for a job. As candidates appearing in competitive examinations know, outsiders receive similar treatment in Bihar. While Bihari students appear in bank PO or railways exams all over India, outsiders could seldom make it to an examination centre in Bihar. But in this particular incident candidates received grievous injuries and when they returned home with broken limbs and swollen eyes it fomented ire in Bihar.

On November 12, a group of people armed with lathis, stopped the 4024 Down Mahananda Express and 4055 Brahmaputra Mail and beat up Assamese passengers. A railway ride through Bihar is never an encouraging proposition. More northeastern trains passing through Jamalpur, Munger and Katihar were attacked and passengers, not necessarily Assamese but Naga, Mizo, Manipuri, Khasi, Bengalis of Assam were looted and assaulted. Some rape cases (officially, molestation) were also known to have taken place. The rest is history as retaliatory strikes against not only Biharis but all Hindi-speaking people began in Assam.

The present outbreak is symptomatic of a deeper and complicated malady. Ashok K. Singh contemplating on his home state Bihar says in Death of Patna (The Pioneer, November 15, 2003), "According to a recent study, the flight of human capital and migration from Bihar has touched gigantic proportions: Over 2.5 crores. Some say the demographic migration from Bihar in the last decade and half is second only to religious migration during Partition. The labour class migrates because there are no employment opportunities. The middle class migrates in search of better economic and social prospects."

Except in ancient history Bihar has seldom enjoyed a healthy image. But the last one decade of Laloo Yadav's casteist "family-farm" government supported by the "secular" Congress, has seen the worst deterioration in economy, law and order, public services. Lumpenisation has become the order of the day. The severance of resource rich Jharkhand has lent it a heavy blow. Most jobs created by the new economy are in specialised sectors with skilled personnel - something Bihar is not matching up to.

There's a huge influx of Biharis to Delhi, Mumbai, Punjab as evident from the inflating size of Chhat Pujas lately. One could only foresee the state sliding down the indices of living standard and Bihar will continue to spawn more of economically displaced people if RJD policies continue. In Laloo Bertram Mills' Circus era the image of Bihar has touched rock bottom and Biharis are being looked at with contempt everywhere as never before. I repeat that what is happening in Assam is symptomatic and could recrudesce anywhere else.

On the other hand, Assam is also a saga of political perfidy. In 1947 Assam shrank because of the conceding of land territory to East Pakistan through the infamous Sylhet-plebiscite. If the Bihari or Bengali tea-estate workers were allowed to vote in that plebiscite, Sylhet could have been saved.

The present state of Assam has recorded the greatest decline in Hindu population percentage of all Indian states in last century. The Hindu population share has plummeted from 84.55 per cent in 1901 to 68.25 per cent in 1991. During the period, the share of Muslims has steadily risen from 15.03 to 28.43 per cent mostly due to immigration from Bangladesh. Genuine Assamese Muslims are negligible in number and mostly well-placed professionals.

But there was another movement of migrants into Assam. This consisted of rice cultivators from eastern Bengal (which later became East Pakistan). This movement began around 1900, and so enormous was its impact that the subsequent census report took extensive note of it. According to the 1961 census, between 1930 and 1960 about six million hectares of land in Assam was settled with immigrants other than former tea garden labourers. This figure as the census put it, was "almost unbelievable in its immensity." These cultivators moved in from their densely populated lands into the wide Brahmaputra valley. As a result of such migration the Muslim population of Assam province increased by 109 per cent between the census of 1881 and that of 1931. It was because of such migrations that Sylhet, the second largest district of the province both in area and population, became predominantly Muslim and was awarded to East Pakistan.

And, pray, what is happening today? ULFA is spilling the blood of the Biharis in a bid to end the final Indian mainland outpost. The space vacated by the Biharis would be immediately occupied by infiltrators from Bangladesh. In 16th century when Hindus were in great cultural and demographic stress from Islamic fundamentalists, Ahom Rajas had brought some enlivenment by acknowledging and accepting Hinduism along with their subjects. But the obsessive secessionist ULFA is trying to drive them into the arms of Pakistan's ISI. ULFA recruits are given guerrilla warfare training in Burma, Pakistan, and Talibani Afghanistan. The ULFA top brass maintains bank accounts in Bangladesh and owns plush houses there. Even if ULFA manages to make Assam secede from India, its demography would force it to become a greater Bangladesh. They would go the way of the Hindus of East Bengal who fought almost to a man against the British but supinely accepted the de-Hinduisation after Independence and Partition.

'Bang-e-Islam" or Islamic Greater Bengal encompassing East Pakistan, West Bengal and Assam was the fond dream of Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, who was foisted on Assam politics by the Congress and later became the President of India. But the Congress' treacherous attitude to Assam was confirmed by the IMDT or Illegal Migrant Detention (Determination by Tribunal) Act which was imposed by Indira Gandhi after her controversial victory in unpopular elections of 1983. This Act makes the onus of proving one's foreigner identity on the complainant, rather than on the accused in contrast to the Foreigners Act for entire India. So while ULFA may kill Biharis and Bengalis, it is getting strangulated by the forces of Bang-e-Islam.

In 1999, the then Assam governor Lt.-Gen. (Retd) S.K. Sinha submitted a 42-page report on Assam's demographic situation to President K.R. Narayanan. Lt.-Gen. Sinha feared that demographic aggression in Assam's lower districts like Dhubri and Goalpara will prompt their merger with Bangladesh. In fact, in lower Assam one could walk miles thinking it is Bangladesh and without meeting a single Indian. The loss of lower Assam will severe the entire landmass of Northeast from the rest of India and the rich natural resources of that region will be lost to India. But Tarun Gogoi, then Assam Congress chief and now the chief minister said, "By saying that the Muslim population in districts like Dhubri and Goalpara may one day demand secession from India, the governor has cast aspersions on their loyalty and commitment to the country. This is unacceptable and unprecedented. We have in fact called for his recall." But didn't the Congress say the same thing before Pakistan was achieved, or didn't Nehru hand over Sheikhdom to Sheikh Abdullah with such faith? Those who don't learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Courtesy: The Asian Age, November 25, 2003