By Dr. Gyan Pathak
The most vocal Hindutva face in the North-East India, the chief minister of Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma, having shown penchant for igniting communal fire in the past, now seems to have decided on playing with even more terrible fire of arms conflicts, if his new arms policy in the state is of any indication. The decision of the BJP-led Assam government under his leadership to put more arms into the hands of civilians would only accelerate insurgent and communal violence in the entire North-East, which has already been suffering from such menace for quite some time.
Himanta Biswa Sarma is all for arming indigenous people in the vulnerable border areas near Bangladesh. He clarified on May 29, 2025, that Assam’s new arms licence policy will not apply to areas bordering Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland, because these areas are not considered vulnerable in terms of national security.
Two things emerged from his statement – First, border areas of Assam along Bangladesh are vulnerable; and secondly, the border areas along other North-Eastern states are not vulnerable in terms of national security, though these regions have been historically involved in border disputes and armed conflicts.
No doubt, border areas along the international border with Bangladesh have been vulnerable, and his government seems to suggest it categorically. The question is who is responsible for that? Providing security to life and property of every citizen in the country is guaranteed by the Constitution of India, and the governments take the guarantee. People living in the border areas are vulnerable only because the Centre is failing in its responsibility in protecting the international border, and the government of Assam unable to protect the Indian citizens within its boundary.
BJP government at the centre and in Assam have been always trying to shift their responsibilities of stopping infiltration from Bangladesh on to the opposition, repeatedly telling the country that the opposition political parties have been allowing Muslim infiltrators from Bangladesh, for their vote bank. What the double engine governments of BJP has been doing – in Assam since 2016, and at the Centre since 2014? Why the people living in the areas along the international border with Bangladesh? It is not their failure that people are still vulnerable there?
Protecting the citizen is government’s responsibility. If the governments with its powerful trained army and armed police force can’t give protection, how can civilian protect themselves with just supply of arms? Civilians neither can protect themselves not their arms. We have recently seen it in Manipur, where arms were looted from armed forces by insurgent or militant groups. Chief Minister of Assam, obviously have not taken any lesson from that. That is why the cabinet note said that the policy aims to act as a deterrent to unlawful threats and improve the personal safety and confidence of the indigenous communities. It is a false perception of the government, since we have seen across the country that people with arms have been targeted by militant groups only to snatch arms. After supplying arms who will protect the civilians?
Assam government has indirectly admitted by approving new arms policy that the government’s security forces were unable to give protection to the civilians in the border areas. Sarma himself said, “The indigenous people in these districts live in an atmosphere of insecurity due to recent developments in Bangladesh. They face the threat of attacks from the Bangladesh side and even from within their own villages.”
The new arms policy would be reportedly implemented in a vast area of Assam in the districts of Dhubri, Nagaon, Morigaon, Barpeta, Goalpara, and South Salmara-Mankachar, where the Muslims of Bangladesh origin form the majority and indigenous population are in the minority.
Sarma has said, “The government will be lenient in providing arms licences to eligible people, who must be original habitants and belong to indigenous communities.” What does it mean? Arms would be supplied effectively to non-Muslims, indigenous people and original inhabitants that is to Hindus.
Sarma has stressed that the policy is not aimed at militarizing civilians but to address a long-standing demand since 1985, but no government has dared to take this decision. Though the policy has been brought in the name of border areas, it is likely to be implemented across the state. Here is what Sarma said, “The government will identify the vulnerable areas where we will grant arms licences to the indigenous people in a liberal manner. Areas like Hatigaon in Guwahati may also be marked as vulnerable area.”
There is no doubt that these freely gotten arms may travel to all areas of Assam and also to other states in the North-East especially the bordering states of Arunachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Nagaland. Inter-state border areas would run heightened risks of armed violence, because of border disputes and conflicts. The arms may also fall into the hands of militant groups and insurgents, and in the wrong hands.
Putting arms in the hands of the civilians is thus highly risky which is nothing short of propagation of violence and armed conflicts within the state among various groups of people, and also in the entre North-East, which has already been suffering from ethnic, militant, or insurgent violence.
India has a precedence of supplying arms to civilians in Chhattisgarh to counter Maoist threat, which led to lawlessness in 2000s. Supreme Court of India had to intervene and declare the policy illegal. Chief Minister of Assam perhaps not learned any lesson from that also.
Then there are other issues – such as the heightened risks of communal violence and vigilantism of the armed civilians against others who are not armed. Assam and the North-East is already very sensitive region of the country, as far as communal, ethnic, militant, or insurgent violence are concerned, of which the region has a history.
By arming the specific group of civilians through new arms policy purportedly for self-defence, BJP’s double engine government is trying to abdicate its core responsibility of providing security to citizens, and encouraging people indirectly to take law in their own hands. Centre and the state must enhance its security presence and drop the policy of arming civilians. In absence of government’s security, the idea of arming specific group of civilians is a most dangerous game. (IPA Service)
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