The convulsions in Assam over the citizenship issue have predictably rocked the rest of the North-east with three killings in neighbouring Meghalaya. On the face of it, it might appear to be yet another conflict between tribals and non-tribals, with the Khasis believed to be at the receiving end of the fury of non-tribals, which now turns out to a euphemism for Bangladeshi migrants in East Khasi district, on the periphery of the Bangladesh border. The scene of the killings is, therefore, selfexplanatory. More accurately, the mayhem in the tiny state has exacerbated the regional tension over the Citizenship Amendment Act and ethnicity, volatile as it is.
These are now the two factors in the north-eastern cauldron. The resultant cocktail is as forbidding as it is insidious with citizenship rights punched with tribal disaffection. Reports that the assailants were armed with machetes have raised suspicions of calculated malevolence. The indefinite curfew and the snapping of mobile internet services reaffirms the instability of Shillong, a faint echo of the Kashmir Valley in the aftermath of the abrogation of Article 370. Given the tragic circumstances, the Indian Foreign Secretary’s presentation in Bangladesh was as appropriate as it was timely.
It is significant too that he chose Bangladesh as his first port of call after assuming charge at the helm of the Foreign Office, recalling one of his predecessor, Shiv Shankar Menon’s visit to Bhutan after taking over (October 2006). Implicit is the anxiety to strengthen regional ties. Mr Harsh Vardhan Shringla’s is said to have assured Bangladesh that updating of the National Register of Citizens in Assam will have “no implications” for the government in Dhaka. This is the first high-level interaction with the neighbour ever since the CAA/NRC/NPA issue potentially threatened to sour bilateral ties.
Furthermore, he has made it clear that it is an “entirely internal process”, carried out at the direction and under the supervision of the Supreme Court. Indeed, Mr Shringla has been more forthright than either of the two worthies who have choreographed the initiative towards a redefinition of citizenship. It needs to be underlined that both the mayhem in Meghalaya ~ bordering Assam and Bangladesh ~ and the Foreign Secretary’s assurance have happened in quick succession. obviously to mollify sentiment across the eastern flank, both at the level of the people and the Awami League government.
“There will be no implications for the government and people of Bangladesh,” he told a seminar in the presence of Begum Hasina’s international affairs adviser, Gowher Rizvi. The latter’s reply was almost a caveat to India ~ “Dhaka does not like to see any situation in India that could affect Bangladesh’s secular social fabric. Our commitment to secularism is absolutely central.” That seemingly saccharine assurance direly needs to be actioned, not the least the occasionally mortal activities of the Islamist fundamentalists, when not the influx of trans-border militants via the porous border. Both Begums ~ Hasina and Khaleda ~ have a positive role to play.