Opposition parties such as the Congress and All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) have criticised the move to alter and merge district boundaries – a day ahead of the start of the delimitation process – as “politically motivated” and “communal”, and yet another bid by the BJP government to marginalise the Bengali-origin Muslim community of Assam in the forthcoming exercise.
The EC announced on December 27 a plan to carry out delimitation of the parliamentary and Assembly constituencies in Assam based on the 2001 Census, following years of deferral. Assam currently has 14 Lok Sabha and 126 Assembly constituencies; and as per the provisions under which the exercise is being held, the current delimitation cannot result in any change in the number of seats, though there can be alteration of boundaries.
The EC directive banned creation of any new administrative units starting January 1, till the completion of the exercise. On December 31, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma held a Cabinet meeting – in Delhi – after which he announced the merger of Tamulpur district with Baksa, Hojai with Nagaon, Biswanath with Sonitpur, and Bajali with Barpeta, along with changes in boundaries of at least 14 other districts.
Sarma denied that the district mergers and changes were linked to delimitation, and said the reason was only “administrative” and would help the districts. However, in reply to a query, he said the redrawing of the districts may have “some impact” on delimitation too.
AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam said the reason was clear, and that while the merger of the districts would not benefit any community in Assam, it was “political messaging to the Muslims to show where they stand, and to reiterate that the majority community will get their way”. Islam said the target was specifically the Bengali-origin community, the AIUDF’s main support base, often labelled “outsiders” in the state.
In his media interaction Sunday, while he denied that the decision over district changes had anything to do with it, Sarma said the delimitation would serve the interests of the “indigenous people”. “The NRC was unsuccessful and the Assam Accord (to end the anti-outsider agitation in the state) also did not live up to expectations. Delimitation can be one exercise that can safeguard Assam’s future for the next two decades at least,” said Sarma, without clarifying.
Opposition leaders said areas were being merged in a manner that the resultant constituencies do not remain exclusive for Bengali Muslims. “It will be a safeguard for the BJP and RSS, not Assam,” said Lurinjyoti Gogoi, president of the Asom Jatiya Parishad, a regional political party.
Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia of the Congress said the district merger ahead of the delimitation made it clear that the whole exercise was meant “to satisfy the need of one political party”. Several Muslim-majority areas such as Hojai in central Assam and Badarpur in south Assam were being “balanced” with areas which had Hindu populations, he said. “They are trying to merge Muslim-dominated areas with Hindu areas, so that the Muslim vote gets diluted,” Saikia alleged.
The AIUDF’s Islam said apart from trying to “decrease the seats for Muslims”, the attempt was also to keep the constituencies reserved for SCs and STs fewer, so as to “increase the seats for the majority (Hindus)”.
Delimitation was meant to provide equal representation for equal population segments, based on a fair division of geographical areas, Islam added. “No political party should have an advantage.”
Sarma argued against such criticism saying the delimitation would be a data-based, non-political exercise, “without depriving anyone of their rights”, or without favouring one community over the other. “The Bengali Muslim population is the reality of life… In districts like Karimganj Hailakandi, the community makes up 50 per cent of the population,” he said. But, the CM added, “Assam needs to protect itself”.
Apart from concerns of the Bengali-origin Muslim community, there is also some anxiety among residents about losing district status, some of which had been created with the promise of better, timely development. Bajali and Tamulpur, now merged into other districts, in fact, were declared districts after the BJP came to power in Assam. Tuesday saw sporadic protests in some areas where boundaries have been altered.
Delimitation last happened in Assam in 1976. While several states saw a fresh round of the exercise in the first decade of the 2000s, it was deferred in Assam multiple times because political parties opposed it citing the ongoing updation of the National Register of Citizens (NRC), a list of bona fide citizens living in the state. However, in February, 2020, the Union Law Ministry passed an order noting that the circumstances that led to the deferring of delimitation in Assam “have ceased to exist”.
In 2021, the BJP in its Assam Assembly elections manifesto promised delimitation to “protect political rights of people”. Many analysts saw this as damage control to placate “indigenous” interests after the party faced massive protests because of passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which promised speedier citizenship to migrants from neighbouring countries who were religious minorities there. This was seen as a way to accommodate Hindu migrants from Bangladesh, which were as much a target of the Assam anti-outsider agitation as their Muslim counterparts.
The 2001 Census put Muslims at 30.9 per cent of Assam’s population, which went up to 34.22 per cent of the 2011 Census. A large number of them are Bengali-origin Muslims, often labelled Bangladeshis and derided as “outsiders” and a “threat” to the “indigenous” population of Assam.
Muslims are believed to hold sway over around three dozen Assembly seats and at least six Lok Sabha constituencies in the state. The 126-member Assam Assembly currently has 31 Muslim MLAs, most of them belonging to the Congress and AIUDF.
