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STAFF Reporter

GUWAHATI, Sept 15 – The Indian Art History Congress (IAHC) has urged Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to ensure safety and security to the life and property of the indigenous people of the State living in the immigrant Muslim-dominated areas. These people have become minority in some pockets in these areas, said the IAHC.

In a memorandum to the Prime Minister recently, on behalf of the IAHC, its chairman Prof RD Choudhury and vice-chairman Dr Haripriya Rangarajan, said that the indigenous people living in the immigrant Muslim-dominated areas of Assam have been living in an insecure state.

In seven districts of the State, the immigrant Muslims have become almost the majority and in some of the pockets of these districts, the indigenous people have become microscopic minorities. And in these pockets, these people are humiliated by the immigrants in various ways.

Even the lands belonging to the Vaishnava sattras (monasteries) have been forcefully occupied by the immigrants. The Gauhati High Court has, by this time, issued directions to the Deputy Commissioners (DCs) and Superintendents of Police (SPs) to give full protection to the sattra people and remove encroachment from the land of these institutions.

The situation has gone to such an extent that even the Bhakats (celibates) and Sattradhikars (heads of the sattras) of some of the sattra institutions have been brutally murdered by the immigrant people. But the State Government has remained a silent spectator to all these developments lest the immigrants are displeased, said Prof Choudhury and Dr Rangarajan in the memorandum to the Prime Minister.

They also asserted that the word 'minority' applied in other parts of the country is not applicable in Assam in the truest sense of the term in case of the immigrant Muslims. Rather, in some of the immigrant Muslim belts indigenous people have already become the minority. Therefore, the benefits made available to the minorities should be allowed to be derived by the indigenous people living in these areas, they argued.

The immigrant Muslim population in the State is growing at an alarming rate, as, they do not adopt family planning measures. Reports suggest that some of these Muslim people have 45 to 50 children individually. But, in the case of the Hindus, tribals and Buddhists, the growth rate of population is going down day by day, Prof Choudhury and Dr Rangarajan said in the IAHC memorandum.

The immigrant people are also encroaching upon the reserved forest land, grazing reserves like the VGRs and PGRs too, besides other Government land of the State posing a serious threat, said the IAHC chairman and vice-chairman.

They also pleaded for treating this menace as a threat to the sovereignty of the country as well and urged the Prime Minister to tackle the problem rising above party politics and save Assam from the 'evil design of Bangladesh.'

Prof Choudhury told this newspaper that the Prime Minister gave a patient hearing to them and assured that he would send the memorandum to the Union Home Minister and he himself would undertake a tour to visit the places referred to in the memorandum, in the near future. The Prime Minister also evinced keen interest in the Gurudwara set up by Sikh Guru Tegbahadur at Dhubri, Prof Choudhury said.

Source: http://www.assamtribune.com/scripts/details.asp?id=sep1609/at07