by Abdul Gani in Guwahati
I
N 2017, a book titled The Last Battle
of Saraighat: The Story of the BJP’s
Rise in the North-East had sparked
controversy in Assam for terming
Assamese sub-nationalism as “anti -
Indian” and a “subversive idea”. The
book was authored by two political
act ivists who were actively associated
with the BJP’s successful campaign in
the 2016 assembly elections. For a
large number of people of the state,
sub-nationalism—jatiyotabad—is the
indelible, undeniable marker of Ass-
amese identity. And the book, by Rajat
Sethi and Shubhrastha, was seen as an
attempt to further the RSS’s idea of
subsuming regional identities into an
all-encompassing Indian nati onalism.
Two years later, and after yet another
spectacular show in the Lok Sabha elec
tions, the BJP would have reasons to
bel ieve that Assam has embraced nati
onalism over subnationalism. And the
biggest sign of this would be the decima
tion of the flagbearer of Assamese regi
onalism, the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP),
Regionalism fades to background as an aggressive
BJP pushes Asom Gana Parishad to the periphery
Brahmaputra
Changes Course
which is facing its biggest existential crisis
in the face of the saffron surge. Statistics
give a clear picture: the BJP won nine
seats out of 14 in Assam and Congress
took three. The BJP also secured 36.
per cent of the vote share while the
Congress got 35.44. The AGP, an ally of
the BJP, failed to win even a single seat. Its
vote share was a meagre 8.23 per cent.
Why this makes for such fascinating
reading is the fact that Assam—in fact,
the entire Northeast—was bristling
with anger by the end of 2018 and the
beginning of this year, after the BJPled
government at the Centre moved the
controversial Citizenship Amendment
Bill (CAB) that aimed to ease the pro
cess of getting Indian citizenship for
nonMuslim people from Bangladesh,
Pakistan and Afghanistan. For decades
now, Assamese speakers have lived
under the fear of being overrun by
undocumented migrants, especially
from Bangladesh, whose numbers vary
dep ending on which side of the political
spectrum is speaking. The influx of
IDENTITY POLITICS
12 OUTLOOK 8 July 2019