Developing situations in Assam.

The family channel of CNN-IBN  governed by @sagarikaghose and @sardesairajdeep came up with headlines "Assam violence death toll rises to 21, shoot-at-sight order issued". Without mentioning reasons for the riots in this excellent piece of journalism, press release (source: PTI) mentions "miscreants set ablaze a camp of the disbanded Bodoland Liberation Tigers", giving an impression that riots are part of a movement against state of India. To further confuse people reading this news in other parts of India, it further says "In Kokrajhar district, nearly 40,000 victims have taken shelter in 35 relief camps set up by the government, while more than 10,000 victims have themselves taken shelter in various schools and government offices in Chirang as the government has not opened any official relief camp, official sources said.". With such a large number of internal forced displacement, this confused master piece of journalism is liked by none and disliked by 9 fellows so far.

But above is assumed to be in continuation of previous reports. The same esteemed channel shows couple of more articles titled "Assam violence: Over 36,000 flee their homes","Assam riots: Toll reaches 19; fresh clashes on","Assam: Shoot-at-sight order issued in Kokrajhar". However, "The root cause of the communal violence still remains unexplained". Further it goes on to say "The trigger though took place in a village called Joypur on Friday where four people where hacked to death. After that attacks and counter attacks have spread like wildfire". But who attacked and who counter-attacked is still not clear. Surprisingly, "The AAMSU subsequently withdrew the bandh following an appeal by ministers". But  when did AAMSU gave a bandh call in the first place and what is legitimacy of AAMSU? It is clear from the news reports published on esteemed CNN-IBN that Bodos were at the receiving end - "An abandoned hostel of Bodo students was set ablaze at Bidyapara in Dhubri district with the fire brigade initially being prevented access before police intervened". Furthermore, was "camp of the disbanded Bodoland Liberation Tigers" actually "An abandoned hostel of Bodo students"?

The #InternetHindu were not satisfied with this confusion and looked at the foreign sources of news. Reuters reports that "India struggles to control deadly Assam riots, hamlets razed". In this report, some hints of what is going on in North-East India is available. Some communality mixed with lot of confusion has already mentioned in CNN-IBN reports but who is rioting?. The answer is, "Rioting between Bodo tribespeople and Muslim settlers has raged for days". The beginning of riot - "The violence reportedly erupted on Friday night when four youths of the Bodo tribe were killed by persons unknown -- in retaliation, armed Bodos attacked Muslims". If Muslims were settlers how they reached  near Bhutan border? where is the origin of these settlers? Here is the Answer from International Business Times. "in the eastern Indian state of Assam over the weekend in clashes between indigenous Assamese Bodo tribes and Muslim immigrants from neighboring Bangladesh". So Bangladeshi Muslims who infiltrated India, could settle near Bhutan border and the state administration is helpless in stopping it. By any chance, this infiltration poses a threat to local North-East tribal culture with "some 300 tribal and ethnic groups"? Where are Indian cultural programs on profit making privatized main stream media (MSM)? what efforts have been made for Indian cultural integration by MSM? But @sagarikaghosh of CNN-IBN will blame racism when ill-informed Indians interact with each-other.

Assam riot is not a small communal  problem as Indian media want #InternetHindus to believe. In the larger picture (favorite phrase of @bdutt), "India's Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran said last summer that almost 1.4 million illegal Bangladeshis have migrated to India over the past decade alone.Ramachandran described the illegal immigration from Bangladesh as a "big problem" and that the government is dealing with it". This is a symptom of much larger problem relating internal security of India.

Acknowledgements:

Author acknowledge all anonymous #InternetHindu community who tweeted on #AssamRiots