In the last 10 days, the Assam government has cleared alleged encroachments from 10,537 bighas (over 1,400 hectares) of land.
GUWAHATI — With the Assam government vowing to carry out a series of evictions to clear “encroachments”, political and social experts have criticised such move, saying that it is aimed at creating a ‘narrative’ ahead of the assembly elections next year.
Eminent people from different fields voiced their ‘concern’ in the manner the eviction drives are being conducted and alleged that people from different communities are brought to buffer zones of inter-state borders to protect it from aggression from neighbouring states, which have already occupied a huge chunk of Assam land, reported PTI.
The state government has carried out at least nine major eviction drives since June this year, affecting several thousand people.
“The agenda of the recent evictions is not clearing encroachments, but to set a narrative in Upper Assam.
After Gaurav Gogoi’s Lok Sabha win last year and post his appointment as Congress state chief, there has been a ‘pro-Gaurav wave’ in Upper Assam districts,” eminent neurosurgeon Navanil Barua told PTI here.
The ruling BJP is trying to create a Hindu-Muslim narrative with these eviction drives and some local organisations have already held ‘anti-Miya’ protests, he added.
“I am sure that after March 2026, it will stop, and we may not hear about encroachment by Miyas for a long time thereafter,” said Barua, also a political commentator.
‘Miya’ is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam, and the non-Bengali-speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants.
Referring to the massive eviction drive at Rengma Reserve Forest recently, Handique Girls’ College Assistant Professor (Political Science) Pallavi Deka said that, as the people were evicted without “proper rehabilitation”, it was more than just the government’s reported attempt to save the jungle.
“The narrative building by the ruling party to ‘save indigenous tribal commons’ from illegal encroachers points towards a fierce communal polarisation in and around the upcoming elections,” she added.
In the last 10 days, the Assam government has cleared alleged encroachments from 10,537 bighas (over 1,400 hectares) of land from Rengma Reserve Forest, Nambor South Reserve Forest and Doyang Reserve Forest in Golaghat district, and Village Grazing Reserve in Lakhimpur.
These drives have displaced around 2,200 families, mostly from the Bengali-speaking Muslim community
On these recent evictions, eminent advocate Santanu Borthakur said: “If it is a forest land, then whosoever stays there for whatever longer period, it does not give them legal rights to settle there permanently.
” However, targeting only one community, as seen in the recent cases in Golaghat is “absolutely discriminatory”, he added.
“The CM’s recent comment that no eviction will take place against people from other communities is anti-Constitution and not permitted by law,” Borthakur said.
In Rengma, 1,500 Muslim families were evicted.
The remaining families are from Bodo, Nepali, Manipuri and other communities, who have certificates from the Forest Rights Committee (FRC).
According to Kaustubh Deka, an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Dibrugarh University, the eviction drive is a significant and sensitive moment for the state, and the whole episode highlights the critical bearing of the state’s complex socio-political history.
“The government must maintain a fair balance between three aspects.
One, the allegation that genuine Indian citizens are being selectively targeted, needs to be addressed in all earnestness.
Two, the rights given to people under progressive environmental legislations such as ‘Forest Rights Act’ need to be respected,” he added.
Also, care should be taken that the ongoing process doesn’t trigger complications in Assam’s already volatile border dispute scenario with many of its neighbouring states, Deka said.
Talking about alleged encroachments in inter-state border areas in Rengma, advocate Borthakur said that normally in border areas, the government settles people in the buffer zones so that no encroachment takes place from the opposite side.
“We can see such habitation in all border areas.
Usually minorities, Gorkha and Bihari people, are settled in such locations,” he added.
Barua too supported his claim and said that in all the border areas with neighbouring states, usually people or communities originally from outside are settled.
“The indigenous people usually do not live there.
People from communities like Adivasis, Gorkhas and minorities live in such areas,” he added.
The reserve forests witnessing recent evictions are along Assam-Nagaland border, where people from the neighbouring state had allegedly attempted to occupy land.
The evicted people claimed that their previous generation was settled in the forest by the Golap Borbora government in 1978-79 and the AGP government, which came to power in 1985.
Borthakur said, “Without considering the historical background, carrying out an eviction is not appropriate. Legally, the government has the power, but the manner in which that power was exercised is not acceptable. It is inhuman and arbitrary.”
He also stressed that evicting people without rehabilitation is wrong.
Echoing similar sentiments, Deka said, “This is against all democratic norms and practices. Utterly inhumane.”
Even the Supreme Court judgement says that even pavement dwellers can not be evicted without rehabilitation.
