Changing demography threats hunt Asomiya

The latest series of evictions emerges as not only regular administrative measures to recover government lands (including forest and water bodies), but also a check on the fastest changing demography in Assam. State chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has made it public that a conspiracy started to change the janagathani (demography) silently which needs to be halted. The chief of Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Dispur also added, "After demographic invasion in western (lower) and middle Assam, today we are seeing the beginning of demographic invasion in eastern (upper) Assam. If we could have visualized the demographic invasion of lower and middle Assam in the beginning, we probably could have stopped it. But it has become irreversible now.” The outspoken saffron leader proudly stated that evictions in various places to reclaim lakhs of bighas of government lands are aimed at preventing the demographic invasion by the people from a particular community (read Bangladesh origin Muslims). Terming the trend as ‘land jihad’, Sarma proclaimed that the government remains committed to liberate every inch of Assam's land from the encroachment.

Mentioning about the latest eviction drives in Barshola, Lumding, Burapahar, Pabha, Batadrawa, Chapar and Paikan localities, he claimed that nearly 1.30 lakh bighas of land were recovered from the clutches of  illegal settlers. His determination was reflected in the latest initiative to make Paikan reserve forest (under Krishnai Forest Range in Goalpara district of western Assam) encroachment-free. The eviction on 12 July 2025 resulted in recovering nearly 1,035  bighas of land from encroachment by over one thousand  families. The opposition Congress party approached the State  Governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya with an appeal to halt the ongoing eviction operations. Calling on Governor Acharya, the Assam Congress delegation sought his intervention against the dispossession of tribal, indigenous, minorities and other people from their rightful properties on the pretext of development’.

But the operations against the encroachers  went on in full swing, even though the situation in Paikan flared up on 17 July as a group of Assam police personnel and forest guards were attacked during their post-eviction works. A large number of evicted individuals including women, who were taking shelter in makeshift camps, started stone pelting over the forces, where no less than 20 personnel were injured. Finally to maintain the law & order situation, the police  resorted to firing upon the unruly aggressors. It resulted in one casualty (Shakuar Hussain) and injuries to a few others. Assam police lately arrested over 20 violent agitators from Paikan suspecting their roles in the post-eviction violence.

State Congress president Gaurav Gogoi, who is also deputy leader of the opposition in Lok Sabha, termed the drives as inhuman and claimed that the saffron government was carrying out the operations to hand over the  lands  to corporate bodies. Gogoi also accompanied Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and leader of the opposition (in lower house of Parliament) Rahul Gandhi on a day-long visit to address a party  workers' meet in Chaygaon locality on 16 July. Both the senior Congress leaders slammed the government for the eviction drives and assured that the displaced families will be allotted land and houses if the party comes to power after 2026 Assam legislative assembly polls. They asserted that the State chief minister will be inside the jail very soon as the Congress will make a clean swipe in the next assembly polls.

CM Sarma swiftly hit back on them stating that Gandhi came to Assam only to encourage the encroachers to occupy protected forest lands. He also alleged that ‘emboldened by his  reckless words, a violent mob attacked our police and forest personnel  (next day) while attempting to forcefully encroach upon the Paikan reserve forest’. Gandhi’s  irresponsible rhetoric has directly endangered lives and disrupted peace in the State. The people of Assam will neither forget nor forgive this betrayal, maintained Sarma.

Earlier, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), a pro-Muslim party led by Maulana Badruddin Ajmal, staged a series of protest demonstrations, where a number of legislators participated along with thousands of supporters, describing the evictions as inhumane, unconstitutional, and politically motivated. Similarly, All Assam Minority Students’ Union (AAMSU), while criticizing the BJP-led government as anti-Muslims, also organized a coordinated protest demonstrations in Bilasipara, Bijni, Bongaigaon, Chirang, Doboka, Tamulpur, Nagaon, Mangaldoi, Salbari, etc against the evictions. They also staged a protest in New Delhi's Jantar Mantar. Terming the government-led evictions ‘inhumane, politically motivated and legally questionable’, Asom Nagarik Samaj alleged that the initiative was only to hand over lands to multinational companies.  Raijor Dal chief and legislator Akhil Gogoi also echoed the version that the evicted lands will be gifted to corporate giants like Adani and Ambani. Communist Party of India, CPI (Marxist-Leninist), Assam Jatiya Parishad, Muslim Sangram Parishad, etc also criticized the government for pursuing ‘politically motivated’ evictions with corporate interests in mind.

On the other hand, wildlife conservationist Soumyadeep Datta  lauded the eviction drives and expressed hope that the government will take decisive actions against the  menace of large-scale encroachment across the State. The award winning activist pointed out that most of the illegal settlers were supported by the Congress leaders a few decades back for selfish electoral gains. Datta questioned why the Congress party would not apologize  to the people for putting the current generation in trouble. Assam Public Works (APW) also supported the government actions  to reclaim encroached forest lands. APW chief Aabhijeet Sarma commented that all communities of Assam should stand with the government in this mission.

Amid all debates and discussions, a new narrative has been tried to establish that all the reclaimed lands from the encroachers will be allotted to the corporate groups (as the State government assured lands for a number of companies after Advantage Assam 2.0 initiative. So the propagators make it sure that the eviction drive needs to be halted as the corporate will only exploit the resources with little or no (economic) benefits to the locals. They also try to convince the common people that the corporate groups are more destructive than the encroachers even though many of them are suspected Bangladeshi nationals. Probably a critical time has arrived for the indigenous (Asomiya) people to decide who they presume more dangerous- the corporate or the illegal migrants (against whom Assam witnessed a six-year long agitation in the Eighties).

Also Read: Assam Police Nab 21 Over Paikan Eviction Site Violence