…then they came for me

[Originally appeared on October 14,2010 ]

“First they came for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Communist.Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up, because I wasn’t a Jew,Then they came for me, and by that time there was no one left to speak up for me.”

-Pastor Martin Niemoller

Yesterday night, someone forwarded me a sms – ‘a tiger killed a Bangladeshi in Kaziranga national park in Assam last week… Save Bangladeshis…only 6602197300298 left in Assam!’ Liking the black humor, I forwarded the same to a few friends… and one of them replied – ‘it is not a joke – fact. We are the responsible one.’ And that set me thinking.

For the uninitiated, a little background is needed to understand the black humor in that sms. In the Indo-Pak war of 1971, a huge mass from East Pakistan (present Bangladesh) had started a migration to Assam. And the migration continues till date, albeit in a different scale– almost 40 years after it was first noticed. This resulted in a major increase of illegal entrants in land of Assam, threatening the very existence of the identity of Assamese people. Enters the politicians, and through their vote bank politics refused to tackle the problem heads on…The situation sparked off Assam agitation (1979-85), which has no parallel in the history of independent India. The Assam accord was signed in 15/8/1985. And it had failed in controlling the migration. The accord, however, had resulted in the rise of a regional political party, consisting mainly of the leaders who had spearheaded the Assam agitation. They came to power all right, but failed to fulfill the aspirations of the millions – getting entangled in corruption and vote bank politics like their predecessor… The common people started feeling betrayed… and around the same time the extremist group ULFA started gaining ground…

But, once the gun starts to talk, the voice of logic, sensibility and compassion gets muffled. Assam was no exception. Over the last two decades, the bomb blasts and killings have started dominating the agenda, taking the focus away from the core issue. And we the middle class, who had backed the Assam agitation to the hilt, decided that the heat has become too much to handle. And withdrew into a shell, -convincing ourselves that it is not our problem anymore…Yes, we do share a sms joke once in a while!

In this inflation driven time, the cost of human life has become surprisingly cheaper in Assam by the day…more than 30,000 people lost their life in the last three decades…and along the way we started accepting it as a part of life!

I am talking about Assam because I have seen from close quarter the shimmering of the fire in her bosom, which today have become the all consuming flame…I am sure, the story is more or less the same in most part of the world where guns are engaged in conversation. The ammo used might be different, but the objects used for target practice are the same – you and me.

I remember visiting Bihar’s (now Jharkhand) Gumla district in the late 90s for a documentary shoot. Although the area was not grabbed by Naxal activities like today, one could feel that the fire was very much shimmering even then. I enquired with social activist whether there is lot of provocative forces at work. His reply still rings in my ears, ‘without negligence, no amount of provocation would succeed…’

In this game of deciding whether the chicken came first or the egg, where do we – you and me- stand? It reminded me of the words of sub divisional police officer Sameer Agarwal – a character of our film ‘as the River flows’ .When someone had told that Sameer that he won’t understand what compulsion is, he retorted-

‘ What do you know about compulsion?? During the Assam agitation, our shop was burned down. Because my forefathers were from Rajasthan , I was considered an outsider! But I am born here – where am I supposed to go? My own brother is one of the extremist whom I am chasing with a gun in my hand. I may have to kill him someday. Compulsion! This extremist organization was born out of the problem of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants. But today, the top leaders of the same organization take shelter in the same Bangladesh. They can call themselves patriot….so who am I? Just a policeman on duty??’

Bidyut