New unofficial census may reignite ethnic tensions...

New unofficial census may reignite ethnic tensions...

While the Bharatiya Janaya Party (BJP) has just won a second term in power with a reduced majority in Assam only weeks ago, there is a common belief that the present move to draw a clear line between native Assamese Muslims and the Miyans enjoys the tacit support of national policymakers based in Delhi. As one analyst explains, going into the 2021 Assembly polls, state BJP leaders were anxious about the alliance between the Congress and the broadly Miyan-Muslim backed All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) led by MP Badruddin Ajmal.

This had cost the BJP a few seats in the 126 strong legislature. But for the poor show put up by parties dominated by former Assamese student and youth leaders, which acted as a spoiler for the Congress-AIUDF alliance because of vote cutting, the BJP would have won even fewer seats.

Given this scenario, he added, nothing would suit the BJP’s interests better than to ensure a further division, this time within the Muslim community, if possible. Unlike relations prevailing between Assamese and Bengali Hindus, among whom despite occasional differences and tensions, marriages and social ties have grown over the years, there has occurred no comparable social blending among the native Assamese Muslims and the Miyans in recent times. The native Muslims tend to look down upon socially on settlers who came over from East Pakistan at different times. These factors explain why during the BJP’s second tenure in power such an enumeration of people had been undertaken.

There is also a contrary view to this, put forward by BJP leaders. As things stand, there would be little significance in such an unofficial head counting. The decadal census operations provide the only legally acceptable basis for computing population stats. A parallel so-called online census, no matter who conducts it would have little meaning or social acceptance, they said.

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