By Uday Bhatnagar/Dilbar Hussain
‘If we are Bangladeshi, why didn’t they evict us on the first day? Why don’t they target Hindus? We are being targeted just because we are Muslims. If there is so much hatred, why not just shoot us and end it? At least we won’t have to face such humiliation. At least we won’t have to live and die homeless on the streets.’
Rubina Begum (name changed), who lived in the Lutimari area of Nagaon district in Assam, had her house bulldozed on November 29. About 1,700 families lived in this area. Like Rubina Begum, other people are also angry with the administration’s action.
The administration says that the bulldozer was used to remove encroachment from 795 hectares of land reserved for forest. While people are alleging that only Bengali-speaking Muslims’ houses were demolished. Houses of Hindus and Christians built on government land were not touched. Now the administration has not made any arrangements to resettle the displaced people.
This is not the first case of bulldozer action in Assam. Since BJP came to power in 2016, there have been allegations of discrimination in several operations to clear government land. According to Assam Revenue Department data, around 17,600 families were removed from government land in the state over the past 9 years. Most of them were Muslims.
Why are there allegations of discrimination regarding previous bulldozer operations to clear government land in Assam? What does the Assam government have to say on this matter? To understand this, Bhaskar’s team reached the ground.
This story was originally published in bhaskarenglish.in. Read the full story here.
