By Sagarneel Sinha
Ever since the Bharatiya Janata Party came to power in 2014 at the centre, the saffron party, keeping in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government’s Act East policy, has always given stress to increase its footprint in the north-eastern region of the country. The saffron party never had any significant footprints in the region, which was once known as the traditional stronghold of the Congress party. To counter the Congress, BJP formed the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA), a conglomeration of many anti-Congress regional parties.
The result has been that today BJP is the ruling party in Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh. In Nagaland and Meghalaya, it is part of the government. Only in Mizoram and Sikkim, it is not a part of the government, although the ruling parties — Mizo National Front (MNF) and Sikkim Krantikari Morcha (SKM) — of both the states are part of NEDA.
However, BJP isn’t satisfied. It wants to consolidate more in the region. The worries of the ruling party are actually genuine. In Assam, although the saffron party came to power in 2016 for the first time, it failed to achieve a majority on its own. It won 60 seats — one short of the majority in the 120 member legislative house of the state. The party assumed power under the leadership of Sarbananda Sonowal with the support of 14 MLAs of Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) and 12 MLAs of Bodoland People’s Front (BPF). Already, BJP-BPF relations are soured with the entry of new ally of United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL) in the Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC). As far as AGP is concerned, the saffron party’s relations with the regional ally too aren’t that good. It has to be mentioned that the regional party withdrew support from the BJP early in 2019, only to ally again with the saffron party ahead of the Lok Sabha polls.
All these suggest that the BJP needs a majority on its own in the state, which is scheduled to go to polls next year by the month of April. Assam is the largest state of the region and if the saffron party has to hold its reserves in the region, it has to cement its position in the state.
Already the saffron party facing opposition from civil society groups of the region for the Citizenship Amendment Act, 2019 (CAA), the message that BJP desperately wants to send through Amit Shah’s visit, ahead of Assam polls, is that the sentiments of the region has always been crucial for the saffron party and the Modi government. To enable its reach more strongly, the party’s strategy is to localise itself with the feelings of the region. This is very significant — as it is aimed to check any political threats a national party like BJP generally faces from regional parties. The success of any regional party in any region is due to the ability to raise local issues that appeal to the sentiments of the people living in that particular region. Notably, regional parties always had a strong influence in political history of Assam. In other north-eastern states, they still continue to enjoy large support.
That’s the reason why Amit Shah highlighted the efforts of BJP governments of both the centre and the state to bring peace in the Bodoland region through the Bodo Peace Accord signed last year. Shah, who also laid foundation stones for a medical college and nine law colleges in the state, stressed on the recent peacefully conducted polls in the BTC region. Apart from this, the most important aspect of Shah’s visit is his announcement to financially assist 8000 Naamghars and his massive development plan for the historic Bordowa Than, the birthplace of Acharya Sankardev, the 16th century Bhakti saint of Assam, who pioneered Vaishnavism in the state. The state’s Vaishnavism is quite different from that of Bengal’s version. Vaishnavism is a living institution in Assam which has always stressed on accommodation of all individuals irrespective of any caste, creed and gender.
Satras and Naamghars are part of the legacy left by Acharya Sankardev. Naamghars, extended versions of the Satras, are living institutions with a history of over 500 years in the state and often known as village parliaments for their crucial role in social and religious activities in the state.
Amit Shah and BJP’s efforts to stress to invoke Assam’s own Bhakti movement is not only to localise itself but also to give the message that the party believes in peace and development of the region. This can be seen from his statements against the state’s history of separatist movements, which often resulted in youths picking up arms.
Separatist movements not only had badly affected Assam but also the entire north-eastern region. A reason why Shah in his Manipur visit too, which has a history of insurgency and blockades, also tried to underscore the decrease of insurgency and blockades due to the efforts of the party both at the centre and the state and also implementation of Inner Permit Line (ILP) by the Modi government, a long pending demand of the local Manipuris. In Manipur, although BJP under N. Biren Singh’s leadership is the ruling party, it still lacks a majority on its own and is strongly dependent on its allies, who share a not-so comfortable relation with the saffron party. These cold relations with the alliance partners often create hurdles in government affairs — a reason for BJP’s worry in the state. Although recent handsome by-poll victories point to BJP’s ability to cement its position in the state, the saffron party is still cautious in its approach.
Essentially, Amit Shah’s recent visit to Assam and Manipur is a part of BJP’s Act East policy aimed to mainly cement the saffron party’s hold by remaining connected with the sentiments of the ground realities and turning it, often derided by Left-Liberals for being a “north-Indian party” in its thoughts, more localised in the north-eastern region. (IPA Service)