By Nava Thakuria*
Guwahati: 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.
Sarma, the chief of Bharatiya Janata Party-led government in Dispur, also added, “After demographic invasion in western and middle Assam, today we are seeing the beginning of demographic invasion in eastern Assam. If we could have visualised 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 liberating every inch of Assam’s land from 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. The recent effort to clear Paikan Reserve Forest in Goalpara district, Assam, of encroachment demonstrates his unwavering resolve to rid the area of illegal settlements. The eviction on July 12, 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 July 17 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, started pelting stones at the forces, where 21 personnel sustained injuries.
Finally, to maintain a law and 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 accompanied Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and Parliamentarian Rahul Gandhi on a day-long visit to address a party workers’ meet at Chaygaon on July 16. They all slammed the BJP-led 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. CM Sarma hit back on them, stating that Gandhi came to Assam only to encourage the encroachers to occupy protected forest lands. Gandhi’s irresponsible rhetoric has directly endangered lives and disrupted peace in the State, he stated. Earlier, All India United Democratic Front and All Assam Minority Students’ Union, Muslim Sangram Parishad, Asom Nagarik Samaj, Raijor Dal, Asom Jatiya Parishad, Communist Party of India, CPI-ML, etc, also criticised the government for the eviction drives with separate protest demonstrations.
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 several companies after Advantage Assam 2.0 initiative. So the propagators make it sure that the eviction drive needs to be halted, as the corporates will only exploit the resources with little or no (economic) benefits to the locals. They also attempt to persuade the general public that corporate entities are more harmful than the encroachers, although many of these encroachers are believed to be Bangladeshi nationals.
Probably a critical time has arrived for the indigenous (Asomiya) people to decide who they presume more dangerous- the corporates or the illegal migrants (against whom Assam witnessed a six-year-long agitation in the Eighties).
*Senior journalist
