For 55-year-old Mohimuddin of Goroimari, which falls in the Chaygaon Assembly constituency in lower Assam's Kamrup district, the protection of minorities from undue harassment in the name of identification of foreigners was the prime issue until a few years ago. This time round, he is more worried about the backwardness of his village coupled with price hike.
A poor peasant with seven mouths to feed, Mohimuddin says the prime demand of his village is a good road connecting it to National Highway 37 so that the villagers can take surplus agricultural produce from their fields to the nearby Chaygaon market comfortably.
Mohimuddin is an Indian Muslim, as opposed to an illegal migrant settler, but like many of his countrymen, he was obsessed that the striking down of the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals) Act 1983 by the Supreme Court in 2005 would result in the harassment of Indian Muslims on the ground that they are foreigners.
The IM(DT) Act, under which those identified as foreigners could appeal to a tribunal, was regarded as a soft legislation in comparison with the Foreigners Act, which was in force in other parts of the country.
The scrapping of the IM(DT) Act had led to widespread apprehensions of persecution and deportation among Indian Muslims and migrant settlers alike. Before it came into force in 1983, it was said that many Muslims were driven out of Assam — allegedly as many as 210,446 between 1952 and 1971 — without being given an opportunity to be heard and defend themselves.
While the absence of the Act was an issue in the 2006 Assembly election and the 2009 Lok Sabha poll, it has become something of a non-issue this time. The reason for this is the assurance of the Congress-led government that Muslims residing in the State will not be harassed and that they need not worry about the absence of the ‘protective' IM(DT) Act.
Earlier, the Congress as well as parties representing the Muslims had attempted to win their support by declaring their opposition to the scrapping of the Act. At the same time, parties such as the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and organisations like the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) regarded the Act as toothless when it comes to detecting foreigners, deleting their names from the voters' lists, and expelling them from the country. As a result of these divergent views, the erstwhile IM(DT) Act used to dominate electoral discourse, particularly among immigrant Muslim settlers.
After the Act was scrapped in 2005, a new political party — the Assam United Democratic Front (later rechristened the All-India United Democratic Front) — was formed at the initiative of industrialist and perfume moghul Badruddin Ajmal and other minority leaders.
In a bid to replace the Congress, the AIUDF stoked the fears among migrant settlers, making inroads into the former's vote bank in the 2006 Assembly poll.
It prevented the Congress from securing a majority in the 126-member House, forcing it to seek the support of 11 Bodoland People's Front legislators to form the government; in 2009, the AIUDF managed to wrest the Dhubri seat from the party.
Mohimuddin and his fellow villagers say that they have not faced any harassment over the last five years. As a result, their attention has shifted from protection of minorities to development. Even the AIUDF is stressing the issue of Muslim backwardness and underdevelopment. The Muslim community plays a decisive role in 30 to 35 Assembly seats.
Although the Congress and the AIUDF are locked in bitter contests in Muslim-dominated areas such as Char, there are suggestions that the former may seek the support of the latter in the event that it falls drastically short of a majority.
Mr. Ajmal has gone on record that his party is open to a post-poll alliance with any party other than BJP, thereby keeping the door open for joining a Congress-led government.
