Prime Minister Narendra Modi last week inaugurated a slew of development projects totalling Rs 11,600 crore in Assam. The unveiling ceremony took place at the Veterinary College Playground in Khanapara, Guwahati, where several infrastructure initiatives, jointly funded by the state and Central government, were revealed. Among the notable projects were the Kamakhya Temple corridor (Rs 498 crore), a six-lane road connecting the new airport terminal in Guwahati (Rs 358 crore), the upgradation of Nehru Stadium to FIFA standards (Rs 831 crore), and a new sports complex in Chandrapur (Rs 300 crore).
Modi also marked the commencement of the second phase of ‘Asom Mala’ roads, involving the upgrading and construction of 43 roads with 38 concrete bridges, requiring a total investment of Rs 3444 crore. Additionally, the foundation stone was laid for the integrated new building of the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital, with an estimated cost of Rs 3250 crore. Other initiatives included the proposed Karimganj Medical College and Hospital (Rs 578 crore) and the Unity Mall in Guwahati (Rs 297 crore), both receiving their foundation stones from PM Modi.
The prime minister also inaugurated a four-lane road from Biswanath Chariali to Gohpur, developed at a cost of Rs 1451 crore and another four-lane road from Dolabari to Jamuguri, constructed at a cost of Rs 592 crore.
Focus on the Northeast has been a continuous process for the Modi government. In January 2021, for instance, PM Modi gave 106,000 land certificates and addressed a large gathering at Jerenga Pathar, in Sivasagar in Assam, a historic site where Joymoti, an Ahom princess, sacrificed her life in the 17th century. “When our party came to power in Assam, there were nearly 600,000 families who were landless and had no land documents. Earlier governments didn’t care for these families. But our government started working on it earnestly to give them land certificates,” PM Modi said. Till date, over 4.28 lakh families in Assam have got “land pattas”, thanks to the Modi government’s incessant efforts.
As part of this initiative, landless families in rural areas will get seven bighas of agricultural land and another one bigha to construct houses. One bigha is equal to 14,400 square feet. In urban areas, the allotment would be 1.10 katha and in Guwahati, it would be 1.50 katha. One katha in Assam is equal to 2,880 square feet. Giving land rights to indigenous landless families was an important promise made in 2016 by the BJP, which came to power in Assam with the slogan of protecting ‘jaati’, ‘maati’ and ‘bheti’ (community, land and hearth). The BJP has clearly lived up to the promises made and outperformed by a wide margin.
The government’s ongoing work on restructuring the national bamboo mission is praiseworthy. Due to the classification of bamboo as a forest product, Northeast India had suffered for decades, under successively incompetent Congress-led regimes. The Modi government started restructuring the national bamboo mission with an outlay of Rs 1300 crore in 2018 and that number has only multiplied subsequently over the last few years.
In February 2021, PM Modi launched various connectivity projects in Assam to further reduce the “geographical and cultural distances” between the state and the rest of the country, including the Mahabahu- Brahmaputra inland waterway project. These projects are a continuation of the slew of similar development and infrastructure projects in excess of Rs one lakh crore, that are currently underway in Assam. The Brahmaputra is a confluence of brotherhood and togetherness. For years, this sacred river has connected people. The mighty Brahmaputra is on a timeless pilgrimage, assimilating, integrating and unifying people of diverse cultures. But it is also true that for long, work that should have been done to increase connectivity on the Brahmaputra was never done and clearly, a clueless and rudderless Congress that ruled Assam for decades has to bear the onus for this apathy. That is why connectivity always remained a challenge, not just in Assam but in the entire Northeast, too.
However, after the BJP came to power in Assam in 2016, things steadfastly began to improve sharply. From bestowing the highest civilian honour, the Bharat Ratna on the legendary Bhupen Hazarika, to reclaiming Assam’s rich history, the Modi government has gone beyond economic progress to instill a sense of pride and mainstream Assam and the Northeast with the rest of India by breaking through the infamous tyranny of distance.
To mark the Rs 3,200 crore Mahabahu-Brahmaputra initiative, aimed at improving water transport connectivity, PM Modi inaugurated three Ro-pax vessel operations between Neemati Ghat (Jorhat) and Majuli island, north Guwahati and south Guwahati as well as Dhubri and Hatsingimari. Modi also laid the foundation stone of the Inland Water Transport (IWT) Terminal at Jogighopa and various tourist jetties on the Brahmaputra and launched two portals for ease of doing business last month. The Ro-pax service between Majuli and Jorhat reduces travel time from 11 hours to only one hour, while the north and south Guwahati travel time is reduced from three hours to just 30 minutes. Reaching Dhubri from Hatisingmari will now take barely three hours, instead of the earlier eight.
The BJP has done stellar work in Assam, vindicated amongst other things, by the proposed 19-km-long four-lane bridge over the Brahmaputra, which will be India’s longest bridge over a river that connects Dhubri in Assam and Phulbari in Meghalaya, to be constructed at a cost of Rs 5,000 crore. Whether it is the Bhupen-Hazarika Setu, the Bogibeel Bridge or the Saraighat Bridge, all of these have made life easier in Assam for the common man and woman. Majuli residents got their first helipad and now they have a road network too, thanks to the Modi government. The 8-km-long bridge connecting Kalibari (in Majuli) with Jorhat is a lifeline for thousands of Assamese families. The distance between Meghalaya and Assam was about 250 km by road, but the Dhubri-Phulbari bridge will reduce it to just 19-20 km. This bridge will reduce travel time from six hours to merely 20 minutes.
The Modi government is fully committed to improving connectivity to south Assam’s Barak Valley and reducing the distance between Assam and other Northeastern states like Meghalaya, Manipur and Mizoram.
Thanks to the BJP’s untiring efforts, after the landmark Bodo accord, elections of the Bodoland territorial council in 2020-21 have marked the beginning of a new chapter of progress and trust in the region. The poor state of medical infrastructure in Assam can be gauged from the fact that in the past, it had only six medical colleges from independence, right up to 2016, whereas work on six new medical colleges was initiated in just five years, under the previous Sonowal government, which is noteworthy and speaks volumes about the fast-paced growth under the BJP-led dispensation. Besides the AIIMS at Guwahati, the Biswanath and Charaideo medical colleges will cater to north and upper Assam.
Also, over 1.25 crore people in Assam are benefitting from subsidised treatment under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, with over 55 lakh people in the state having already availed of primary health treatment, in the Health and Wellness Centers (HWCs) that have been established in Assam. Janaushadhi Kendras, Atal Amrit Yojna and dialysis programmes are bringing positive change in the lives of the common people.
Moving away from health, the centrality of Assam’s tea gardens in the growth of the state is notable. Cores of rupees were transferred to the accounts of 7.5 lakh workers of tea gardens under the Dhan Puraskar Mela Scheme. Over 47,000 pregnant women working in tea estates are being helped by a special scheme worth Rs 12,000 crore. That allocation has now been raised to Rs 18,000 crore. Special medical units and over 130 mobile vans are operating in over 445 tea estates to take care of over 40 lakh workers, directly and indirectly associated with tea estates. Over 6.5 lakh people in Assam have also benefited from the nutrition-based Poshan scheme of the Modi government. Again, 35 lakh women have got gas connections under Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, with 4 lakh of the aforesaid families in Assam belonging to Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
Toilet coverage in Assam has increased from 38 per cent to 100 per cent in the last five years. Five years ago, less than 50 per cent of households had access to electricity, which is now almost 100 per cent, which is unprecedented. In Assam, under the Jal Jeevan Mission, piped water connections have been provided to more than 2.5 lakh homes in the last 1.5 years alone, endorsing Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s mantra of Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas, Sabka Vishwas.
Assam, where illegal migration from Bangladesh has been a concern, underwent dramatic demographic changes in the last few decades. There are a total of 34 districts in Assam today, with Bajali recently becoming the 34th district. As per the 2011 census, Dhubri district has 79.67 per cent, Barpeta 70.74 per cent, Darrang 64.34 per cent, Hailakandi 60.31 per cent, Goalpara 57.52 per cent, Karimganj 56.36 per cent, Nagaon 55.36 per cent, Morigaon 52.56 per cent and Bongaigaon 50.22 per cent people of Islamic faith. The rise in the non-indigenous Muslim population is reportedly due to a large-scale influx of illegal migrants and is not necessarily organic in nature. Unlike the Muslims who migrated from east Bengal and Bangladesh, indigenous Muslims use Assamese as their mother tongue and follow cultural traditions and festivities similar to Assamese Hindus, which clearly differentiate them from the migrants.
Assamese Muslims have no cause to feel a threat to their identity and their interests will be protected by the Modi government. The Opposition, primarily the Congress and the AIUDF have been trying to fearmonger and peddle lies with respect to the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), to alienate Assamese Muslims from the BJP.
Who are Assamese Muslims?
In Assam, indigenous Muslims can be divided into three distinct groups called Goria, Moria and Deshi. Some smaller groups like Moimal, Julha, Ujani and Syed are also called Assamese Muslims. It is reported that while the Morias are mainly descendants of Muslim soldiers who were part of invasions to Assam and were captured by Ahom kings, the Deshis and Gorias are people from indigenous communities in lower and upper Assam respectively, who converted to Islam. Deshis were from Koch-Rajbongshi communities. Gorias consist of Muslims brought from outside Assam by Ahom kings, captured Muslim soldiers and those who converted locally, as per Muminul Aowal, Chairman, Assam Minorities Development Board. Assamese Muslims have contributed a lot to the state’s history, right from the time of the Ahom kings when they distinguished themselves in the army to the Assam Agitation of 1979-85 against illegal Bangladeshi immigrants and also towards embellishing Assamese literature and culture.
According to Census 2011, there are over 10.67 million Muslims in Assam. This includes Muslims who migrated from East Bengal and Bangladesh, those who came to Assam from other parts of the country as well as Assamese Muslims. At present, the fates of nearly one-fifth of the total 126 assembly seats in Assam are decided by votes of migrant Muslims and their descendants. “The Assamese Muslims, who are scattered all over Brahmaputra Valley don’t have a single representative in the State Assembly,” Nekibur Zaman, a senior advocate and vocal activist for the rights of Assamese Muslims, said. “We are aware of the unique problems faced by the Assamese Muslims. The process of doing the needful is underway. Once that is done, a survey will be done to find out the exact number of indigenous Muslims,” said minorities welfare minister Ranjit Dutta, a few months back. Clause 6 of the 1985 Assam Accord, which sought to give constitutional safeguards to indigenous Assamese through reservation of seats in legislature and jobs was never implemented by the erstwhile Congress regimes, thereby denying the fruits of development to Assamese Muslims.
The Modi government has a great rapport with Bangladesh and on March 26, 2021, a new non-stop passenger train with ten bogeys, running between New Jalpaiguri and Dhaka, that covers a distance of 513 km, was flagged off, to mark the Bangladesh Liberation Day and the birth centenary of Bangabandhu, Sheikh Mujibur Rehman. This was the third passenger train between the two countries. The other two are the Maitree Express which runs between Kolkata and Dhaka, and the Bandhan Express which connects Kolkata and Khulna.
The Haldibari-Chilahati (in Bangladesh) train route was opened after a gap of 55 years for goods trains on December 17, 2020. The passenger train between New Jalpaiguri and Dhaka takes the same route. Hence, those trying to peddle a false narrative about trouble in Indo-Bangladesh bilateral relations are clearly mistaken. The Modi government has done far more for minorities and Muslims than any other government in post-independent India, with over 3.4 crore minorities, including Muslim youngsters being granted scholarships in the first five years of the Modi government. Under Modi 2.0, the aim to provide scholarships to 5 crore students from minority groups, including Muslims, was brought to fruition. The Congress, with no leader, legacy or positive agenda, has only used Muslims for its nefarious votebank politics. Perfume baron, Badruddin Ajmal’s AIUDF too has never cared for Muslims, apart from furthering its divisive agenda by using Muslims to propagate its politics of hate and dangerous polarisation. The unholy Congress-AIUDF nexus is merely an opportunistic one, with nothing but instability to offer, to the peace-loving, beautiful and culturally rich, Assamese community.
Assam simply cannot suffer instability anymore, as it is now on the cusp of reclaiming its rightful place in the annals of Indian history. In sharp contrast to the divisive Congress, the BJP has a stated objective of “justice for all and appeasement of none”. If good politics is indeed about good economics, then Assam is a classic template of progress, inclusivity and development, which is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s unifying political mantra is all about, in more ways than one.
Sanju Verma is an Economist, National Spokesperson for BJP and Bestselling Author of “The Modi Gambit”. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect News18’s views.
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