Congress Provokes Ethnic Cleansing

Congress Provokes Ethnic Cleansing

Congress and BJP call each other communal, but in this election, now in its final stages, it is Congress, and not BJP, that seems to be hoisted on its own petard.   

It has been aggressively wooing the Muslim vote, reiterating, that it will implement a 4% Muslim quota within the 15%  for OBCs, promised some time ago. Not even the Muslims believe Congress promises, or that it can deliver justice anymore, and besides, everyone knows the Congress is unlikely to be in power come May the 16th.

In the last two phases of voting, the rumour mill is billowing thick and fast. One suggests Congress will engineer massive communal riots so that Muslims are scared into voting for them. But the Assam pogrom, in a staunchly Congress state, is definitely not what it had in mind.

This stratagem is designed to harm the BJP and vitiate the atmosphere during the process of Government formation after the polls. Another, more far- fetched rumour, says Congress will contrive some charge to have bête noir Narendra Modi arrested. If ‘Snoopgate’ was the latest secret weapon in this regard, it is doggedly refusing to get off the ground, the UPA allies are not on board, and time is running out.  

Hoping for riots to come to the rescue, makes two unjustified assumptions, one that Muslims will choose Congress, and not some other  independent alternative to BJP, and indeed not the businesslike BJP itself, cresting on a Modi Wave that is calling out to Muslims too.

The other hope against hope is that the BJP/NDA will not get a majority on its own, and will indeed need several post poll allies. The Congress riot-mongering theorists, thanks to its well-oiled propaganda machine, expect BJP to cop the blame for any violence against Muslims. And therefore find it difficult to attract post-poll allies.  Those who back this strategy in Congress are apparently quite prepared to sacrifice some Muslim lives towards its own lust for power.

Apart from the trio of frantic Gandhis, trying desperately to brand the BJP communal, other crafty Congress allies, such as the National Conference  and Samajwadi Party, have also been ratcheting up the abuse. Oddly, both NC and SP preside over perpetually communally tense states. Others, like TMC, pose to be pro-Muslim in order to woo its 26% minority population, including many Bangladeshi aliens who are a definite security hazard.

Violence in Maoist strongholds has also been escalating, but without much political dividend. More bloodshed too is expected in Jammu &Kashmir because of the irresponsible statements made by NC politicians. Similarly, cross border infiltration and firing is on the upswing, and the Pakistani Army Chief has also chimed in, calling Indian Kashmir Pakistan’s ‘jugular vein’.

Congress and its first family, claiming to be ‘inclusive’, are blatantly begging endorsements from any Maulana or Maulvi willing to listen.

Meanwhile, ironically, it has all gone bad on the ground in the Congress bastion of Assam, erupting most inconveniently for the Congress, for the third time since 2008. The infamous Kokrajhar district and two others next to it are experiencing yet another bloodbath. Native Bodos are slaughtering Bangladeshi immigrants. Retaliations from the Bangladeshi settlers/refugees, constituting vote-banks for Congress, are naturally expected. Meanwhile men, women and children, 32 in one night, were killed in cold blood, their houses burnt down.

Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi promptly called in the Army, but the situation remains tense, with all three districts under curfew. No one is sure there won’t be more attacks and retaliations, especially at night, and in the more remote areas. The Muslims are beginning to assert themselves politically as well by voting for one of their own much to the chagrin of the Bodos who are allied to the Congress.

But thanks to this kind of cynical demographic engineering practiced by the CPM and Congress over decades in the states bordering Bangladesh, the situation is coming apart at the seams. The immigrants, no longer compliant, parallel the now assertive Turks brought in to do menial work in Germany. The scenario has deteriorated into a process of frequent clashes, and even ideas of systematic, savage, ethnic cleansing by the native population.

In West Bengal, millions of refugees have been a law and order problem and economic burden for years. But the Bangladeshis are still welcomed by the Congress, the CPM, and now the TMC too.

Gogoi looks smug after 14 years in the saddle even as he reaps the whirlwind. The Asssamese seem to continue voting Congress despite everything. But what are the Bangladeshi Muslims doing?

Still, how can the Congress act against them, when they have created the Frankenstein themselves, like they once created Bhindranwale and his band of Khalistanis in Punjab, and are now cravenly dependent on it. The Muslim vote is vitally important to Congress, not only in Assam, but all around the country.

But despite this sordid history of state collusion in the creation of Bangladeshi vote-banks at the expense of the native population and its safety, a callous Congress continues to blame the BJP for everything.

May 4, 2014

842 Words

Gautam Mukherjee