By Md. Ali, TwoCircles.net,
Sayedullah Nongrum, former health minister of Meghalaya and a Congress legislator from Rajabala (Rajabala is a part of Garo hills plains and is one of the Muslim pockets in the state) offered to resign on the question of “alleged” Bangladeshi influx in the state.
In a heated debate in the state assembly yesterday he said that if the government proves the presence of even one “illegal” Bangladeshi in Rajabala, his assembly constituency he will resign from his assembly seat that very moment but the governments can not harass innocent Muslim workers on the name of illegal Bangladeshis.
He was reacting to a motion moved in the house by Ardent Basaiawmoit, a member of the ruling United Democratic Party on the influx of Bangladeshis in the state.
Talking to TwoCircles.net from Sillong he pointed out that while he welcomes any mechanism to stop the influx of Bangladeshis in the state but he protests the policy of the government and administration to simply harrass innocent Indian citizens on the name of illegal Bangladeshi.
He explained that what happens is that lots of Muslims migrate to Meghalaya in search of livelihood from the border districts of the adjoining states like Barpeta in Assam.
They are very poor people and do manual work. Some times they come with the proper documents to prove their Indian citizenship and sometimes they don’t. Whatever the condition instead of following the proper procedure of investing and tracing their roots the police have been harassing them, he added.
Being the general Secretary of the Muslim association of the state he has got many complaints that when they show the documents police tear them off.
He further said that particularly after the Assam blasts the police have increased their so called combing operation and harassment of the Muslims in the state. He further pointed out that instead of formulating a well chalked out mechanism to stop the influx the government has adopted the policy of creating panic and approaching the issue with an anti-Muslim bias.
It seems that the government works on the idea of that every Muslim in the state is an illegal Bangladeshi he argued.
He further said that most of the people who have been ostracized and harassed on the name of Bangladeshi influx are either from Assam, West Bengal or other states. They are all Indian citizens.
Mr. Nongrun said every Indian citizen has complete right to be in any part of India. “You can not behave like Raj Thackeray and the way he is approaching issues.”
He argued that there are Hindus, Garo and Khasis also who are Bangladeshis but why is it that only Muslims in the state are considered as illegal Bangladeshis while Hindus are termed as “refugees” and their identities are not investigated into by the government.
In his concluding remark he pointed out that “it is such a hopeless situation that I don’t know what to say more on this. The government lacks the political will to put in place any solid mechanism to check the influx of the Bangladeshis. It has supported the harassment of Muslim by police and will do it even in future.”