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From: baparao@uscvax.UUCP (Bapa Rao)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Rajiv Gandhi takes a cue from the ultra-Zionists
Message-ID: <129@uscvax.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 19-Dec-85 04:26:19 EST
Article-I.D.: uscvax.129
Posted: Thu Dec 19 04:26:19 1985
Date-Received: Sun, 22-Dec-85 03:01:37 EST
References: <11260@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU>
Reply-To: baparao@usc-cse.UUCP (Bapa Rao)
Distribution: net.politics
Organization: CS&CE Depts, U.S.C., Los Angeles, CA
Lines: 45

In article <11260@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> lazarus@brahms.UUCP (Andrew J Lazarus) writes:
>
>The Sunday 12/15 and Tuesday 12/17 _NY Times_ contain some interesting
>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.
>
>I look forward to a justification of these events from certain persons
>who criticise the Israeli government for pursuing a rather similar
>(perhaps even more moderate!) policy.....
>

Huh? I was under the impression that Israel "immigrated" to the West Bank,
while the Arabs there were native to that place. In the case of Assam, it is
just the opposite: the people being disenfranchised are Bangladeshi (then
East Pakistani) refugees from the war of 1971 who illegally remained (they
were definitely not naturalized Indian citizens), and the people demanding
their disenfranchisement and expulsion are native Assamese. Only (crooked)
political and humanitarian considerations (they would have to go back to
Bangladesh, an even poorer country than India, and while they remain in
Assam, they can be made to vote (illegally) for the ruling party as a price
for ignoring their illegal status) prevented them from being sent back home
sooner, and led to a violent agitation on the part of the native Assamese
who feared "competition for jobs and erosion of their culture".  (Familiar
ring there!)

>Why is the Arab/Israeli
>conflict is at the center of the stage -- no UN session is complete
>without a new anti-Zionist declaration -- while stories like these
>remain on the back pages?
>
>andy

Wonder why? Maybe the UN took the Andy Lazarus Correspondence Course in
Logic! :-).

                                        --Bapa Rao.