Assam- Salivating or Salvaging?

53 people termed dead and almost four lakh homeless, and the latter now crowd the 250 relief camps set up by the government in Assam. Tremors of grotesque Assam violence have been vehemently felt in the neighboring districts of Kokrajhar, epicenter of Assam violence. Cause being the clash between the Bodos tribe of Assam and the illegal Muslims immigrants from Bangladesh. The situation is such now that people are now forced to become refugees in their own land.

The highly sensitive border of India and Bangladesh goes knowingly ungoverned. This lack of governance at the border has led to a rampant infiltration by the Bangladeshis. Majority of these infiltrators are Muslims thus leading to a sudden surge of Muslims population in Assam. Due to lack of development in the region the available resources for livelihood are scarce, already suffering from apathy of the government the people now had to compete for livelihood with the mass of ever increasing infiltrators thus leading to social tensions which then took a violent communal riot.

After the initial violence on 6^th of July, when there was indiscriminate firing, Assam congress had sent a fact finding team which submitted a report to the Chief Minister on the incident. CM underestimated the report and chose not to act. This negligence proved costly as the riot broke after fifteen days of thick tension on 21^st of July with ugly repercussions for the society.

Security forces failed to curb the violence, reason given by the state government is lack of adequate number of security personals in the state. The state required 126 company of security force but the state was shockingly 40 company short of the required number. Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi has blamed the central government for the lapse. He claimed that the security forces reached four days late after the clashes broke out. The Center tried to steer clear saying it acted as fast as it could. This blame game has been shamelessly played by both the sides with an ever increasing vigor. Had the infiltration curbed the situation would never occurred, but the politicians are busy defending themselves instead of their country.  The state government allegedly turned a blind eye to the infiltration as this unwanted sympathy meant filling up their vote banks.

The Prime Minister visited the state on 29th of July and gave the violence-hit state a so called healing touch of  Rs 300 crore. He met the refugees and offered his condolence at a relief camp at Kokrajhar Commerce College. With the big money being poured, it remains to be seen whether mouths start salivating or the state undergoes salvation!