Assam’s 2022 in review:Shiv Sena rebels flight and Eviction drives

GUWAHATI: The year 2022 saw Assam’s Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s government pushing ahead with what some saw as the BJP’s muscular nationalism agenda and ‘Hindutva’, which in the process has created nationalism. Caught the eyes.

He launched a campaign against encroachment, displaced large numbers of families, most of whom were Bengali Muslims, demolished private madrasas and sealed the Miya’ (Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam) museum, among others. termed most of them as “illegal encroachments” on the state. – Proprietary land.

The state also arrested 53 jihadists with alleged links to the banned Bangladesh militant outfit Ansar-ul-Bangla and 36 PFI activists in the state during a nationwide crackdown on the outfit.

Earlier this year, the Assam government told the Guwahati High Court that around 51 people were killed and 139 injured in clashes with the police between May 2021 and May 2022.
Opposition parties and human rights activists have criticized the eviction campaigns and the killings in encounters, many of which occurred after arrested alleged criminals “attempted to escape from police custody”.

The Chief Minister, on his part, left no stone unturned in asserting that these are serious threats to the security of the state and the nation and will be crushed with iron hands.
Sarma, the ‘blue-eyed boy’ of the BJP leadership, allegedly facilitated the formation of rebel Shiv Sena MLAs, led by Eknath Shinde, who brought down the Uddhav Thackeray-led Maha Vikas Aghadi alliance and became the Maharashtra minister. He became superior. As he will celebrate the twists and turns of contentious politics from a city hotel here.
Gujarat MLA Jignesh Mevani’s arrest by the Assam police for tweeting against Prime Minister Narendra Modi, following a case registered in Kokrajhar district, and being brought here by political opponents is another way to stay in the party’s good books. Attempted. central leadership.

Mevani was granted bail in the main case related to the tweet but was arrested again after he was allegedly “assaulted” by law enforcement officers while bringing kokrajar from Guwahati.
While hearing the bail plea, the Barpeta District and Sessions Judge also requested the Guwahati High Court to direct the state police force to “correct itself” citing several police encounters over the past one year.

The chief minister also emerged as the BJP’s new poster boy for campaigning, as he was roped in as the star campaigner by the saffron party for the recently concluded assembly elections in Gujarat and the municipal elections in Delhi.
The 400th birth anniversary of the legendary Ahom general Lachit Barphukan, who defeated the Mughals in several wars, was celebrated in the national capital in which the Prime Minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah participated.
It is being seen as a chilling attempt to take the state narrative to the national platform with a claim to make Assam one of the top five states in the country.

However, the state was hit by devastating floods this year, one of the worst in recent decades, which claimed more than 200 lives and affected a population of over 9 million. Silchar in Barak valley is under the grip of natural calamity.
Apart from three waves of floods, the state witnessed landslides in Dima Hasao, heavy unseasonal rains in many parts of the state while many districts received little or no rain, creating a drought-like situation.

The state’s contentious issues with its neighbors also came to the fore with a clash in Makroh in West Kirbi’s Anglong in which five Meghalaya residents and an Assam forest department official were killed in a cross-border firing.
Assam has border demarcation disputes with Meghalaya, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh and Nagaland. Discussions are ongoing with all concerned states.

As soon as Sarma took office, he sent an olive branch to the outlawed Alpha (Independent) to come forward for talks. While the organization announced a cease-fire, which is renewed every three months, no progress has been made in the talks.
However, there are reports that the ULFA(I) is trying to regroup in some districts of Upper Assam, leading to clashes with security forces and the recovery of arms and ammunition.

The state also lost several cultural figures with the deaths of renowned actor-director Nippon Goswami, artist-filmmaker Pulak Gogoi, artist Neelpawan Barua and dancer Garima Hazarika.