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From: agrawal@csd2.UUCP (Try m/c ACF6)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Rajiv Gandhi takes a cue from the ultra-Zionists
Message-ID: <3630033@csd2.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 18-Dec-85 23:23:00 EST
Article-I.D.: csd2.3630033
Posted: Wed Dec 18 23:23:00 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Dec-85 02:57:50 EST
References: <11260@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Organization: New York University
Lines: 62

>/* csd2:net.politics / lazarus@brahms.BERKELEY.EDU (Andrew J &) /  9:23 pm  Dec 17, 1985 */
>
>news about elections in the Indian state of Assam.  You may remember
>Assam as a state in NE India where riots 2 years ago killed thousands
>of Muslim refugees from Bangladesh.  (The rioters were Assamese and Hindu
>Indians.)
>
>The Indian government quelled these riots with an agreement, which,
>according to the newspaper, included these provisions:  1.  Immigrants
>from after 1971 would be expelled from Assam, in some cases back to
>Bangladesh.  This affects between 500,000 and 1 million people.
>(i.e. about the population of the West Bank)  2.  Immigrants from
>between 1966 and 1971 (tens of thousands more) may remain but lose
>the right to vote for ten years.
>andy
>/* ---------- */

	I think you have got your facts rather distorted. you make it 
sound like the Congress(I) government is trying to get rid of the Muslim
population of Assam. In fact , it is just the opposite.
	During the period 1965-1971 approximately 5 million refugees
crossed into India from East Pakistan due to the civil war in that
that country (By the way , U.S. wasn't even willing to agree thatany
civil war was going on or that the positoin was abnormal ).
	After BanglaDesh's independence , another 1/2 million people
have supposed to have crossed over to Assam. This whole thing has
caused the Refugee population of Assam to be almost 1/3 of the total
population of Assam.
	However , the Muslim and other minorities have always been the
vote bank of the Congress Party , and this case was no exception. The
Congress allowed this illegal immigration to go on and the Electoral
rolls got highly distorted.
	The a couple of years back , Indira Gandhi forcibly tried to
have an election despite extreme opposition to any elections before
the question of Electoral roles could be sorted out. This led to
large scale rioting and started to take on a secessionist tone and
eventually has become an agitation not only against the Muslims,
but against all the non-assamese and especially Bengalees.
	Now an accord with the agitation leaders has been reached.
However BanglaDesh will not be taking back any of the immigrants and
they will have to be absorbed elsewhere in India. As to the defranchising
of the people who came between 1965-1971 does make sense because 
otherwise the electoral balance has totally shifted due to illegal
immigration. (Just imagin what US would do if suddenly so many
immigrants from Mexico came and somehow got themselves 
**** registered as voters **** and their population was as much 
as 1/3 of the total population.)
	The Assam accord is simply attempt to cope with a situation that
had got out of hand because of Mrs. Gandhi's covert approval of the
Muslim immigration from BanglaDesh because that served as her vote bank.
However she did try to stop the infiltration from across the border
after the agitation took the ugly turn at the elections.A barbed wire
fence is supposed to be constructed along the whole Bangla Desh borded
with India. However this has led to a serious dispute with BanglaDesh.


				Mukul Babu Agrawal
				agrawal@csd2.nyu.arpa
				...cmcl2!csd2!agrawal

p.s. Assam had elections this Monday . I do not know what happened but
I'll post the results when I get my weekly paper.