Assam evictions invite arbitrary diktat from Nagaland as border row flares up

September 1 brought a fresh source of unease to many residents of Merapani in Assam’s Golaghat district, already scarred by massive eviction drives.

From that date, an arbitrary rule, issued via a notification from 11 influential village councils of Nagaland, has gone into effect. The notice bars people from Assam from entering the bordering state without an Inner Line Permit or permission from the village councils, violating which will invite a fine of Rs 50,000 plus legal penalties.

The village councils issued the notification on August 23, and the governments of the two states — both ruled by NDA — have so far failed to solve the issue amicably. The Assam government has not even issued any official statement on the issue till now.

Renewed crisis

This crisis started just days after Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma defended the recent eviction drives at Uriamghat and denied any wrongdoing by anyone from Nagaland. He said his Nagaland counterpart Neiphiu Rio and he would join hands for a massive plantation drive in the recently-cleared areas in Rengma reserve forest in Uriamghat.

However, days later, the Assam government had to face humiliation after the plantation drive was shelved. The Assam delegation led by Environment and Forest Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary had to return without starting the drive after Nagaland officials said they were postponing the event, and would take a decision only after consulting Rio.

This came after certain Naga groups alleged, just like in 2021, that the Uriamghat eviction drives violated the status quo over disputed land and was actually a ploy by Assam to grab the state’s land.

Also read: Assam eviction drives and migrant row spark political unity push: Capital Beat

Nagaland’s claim

The Niki-Sumi faction of the insurgent outfit National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) has claimed that the eviction drives are a planned move to grab the ancestral land of Naga people.

“In the name of evicting illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, the Assam government has double-crossed the Nagaland government” and is occupying ancestral Naga areas by “permanently stationing Assam Police in the Disputed Area Belt,” the outfit said a statement.

The Sumi Hoho, a local community-based institution, also issued a statement saying that Nagaland Deputy Chief Minister Yanthungo Patton has given a firm assurance to them for the creation of outposts in the recently evicted zones.

Border dispute

“These are border areas, and this stretch of the border has seen volatile situations many times. Many people living in this area are farmers, who have livestock and cattle, and those animals often wander into Nagaland, and the owner has to go and fetch them,” said Boluram Nayak, a resident of Merapani.

“How can these farmers pay Rs 50,000 as fine, and why will they do so? So, understandably, the notification has created a tense environment,” added Nayak.

Another local youth, Rihon Boro, said the movement of vehicles through the area has also gone down. “People don’t want to take any risk and are waiting for the issue to be solved at the government level,” said Boro.

Also read: Nagaland, Assam CMs agree on joint action in 'Disputed Area Belt'

Tea garden workers tense

According to Boro, tea garden workers, mostly belonging to the Tea Tribe community, are also living in fear, as the situation is reminiscent of the June 2021 attacks by Naga miscreants on tea gardens, mostly belonging to small tea growers, in the border areas of Assam.

According to locals, tension in the region has increased manifold after the much-publicized eviction drives at Uriamghat in Golaghat district, with Naga groups accusing the Assam government of encroaching their land.

“Even blank firing has been heard from across the state border. We were terrified and reported these to the police,” said Partha Das, a resident of Golaghat’s Thuribari.

Assam government draws flak

“This area is sensitive and has seen a lot of violence in the past. Ever since the notification was issued, everyone is worried. We hope the Assam government solves it before any major violence happens,” added Das.

While Golaghat DSP Rajen Singh refused to say anything on the issue, civil society groups from Assam have raised concern and accused the Assam government of not being sincere enough to solve it.

“It is such a pity that we are being humiliated in our state. We hope the chief minister takes up the issue with his counterpart in Nagaland and arrives at a concrete resolution of the issue,” said Bikash Bora of the influential All Assam Students Union.

Also read: Assam CM Sarma: ‘Invasion by people of one religion’ altering demography across state

Muslim card backfires

Opposition parties in Assam have questioned the chief minister’s silence on the issue and alleged that by attempting to play the Muslim card in the recent eviction drives in a sensitive area like Uriamghat, he has created newer fault lines in the region.

“The land now being claimed by Naga groups as their own always belonged to Assam, and until the eviction drives happened — which the chief minister used as a tool to target the minority community in the state — no group from Nagaland claimed it. Now suddenly, they are claiming our land,” said Jagadish Bhyuan, General Secretary of the Jatiya Parishad, an opposition party.

“Also, it is shocking that till now, the Assam government has not issued any official statement on the subject or taken any step on the issue,” added Bhuyan.

He also alleged that Sarma went ahead with the eviction drives without any planning. “What could be a bigger example of incompetence than this? The government holds eviction drives on land belonging to Assam, and now that land is being claimed by Nagaland, and the state government has not issued any official statement till now,” Bhuyan summed up.

Temporary border solutions

The Assam-Nagaland state border dispute is not new, and it has seen several major flare-ups, the last one before this in 2021, months after the BJP led NDA government won a second consecutive term in the state.

On July 31, 2021, the chief secretaries of both states signed an agreement to de-escalate the tensions and reached an understanding to immediately withdraw their respective forces from border locations to their respective base camps.

Local activists slammed the Assam government, saying it is keener on Band-Aid-like temporary solutions instead of a permanent one. “There have been multiple such situations in the past, but we want this present flare-up to be the last. The Assam government must act and solve the issue permanently,” said Sudipta Nayan Goswami, an Upper Assam-based advocate and social activist.

Criticizing the Assam government over its silence, Goswami said village councils cannot issue such arbitrary notifications, and said that the state government should take up the issue with the Nagaland government.

Also read: Tension on disputed Assam-Meghalaya border over plantation drive

Empty promises

Ironically, Union Home Minister Amit Shah had made a big claim in 2022 that all interstate border disputes in the North East would be solved by 2024. The tall claim came on September 12, 2022, as a Peace Pact was signed between the Centre, the Assam government, and eight insurgent groups.

The Assam government signed agreements for border settlement with the Meghalaya government on March 29, 2022 and the Arunachal Pradesh government on April 20, 2023, in the presence of Shah. And on February 9, 2024, it agreed along with the Mizoram government to make a joint effort to resolve the inter-state border dispute.

However, till now, there has been progress only between Assam and Meghalaya. As per the agreement signed in 2022, they solved the border disputes in six out of 12 areas.

Recurring border conflicts

But in the meantime, Sarma, who is the BJP’s Man Friday for the North East region and the convener of the North Eastern Democratic Alliance (NEDA), has landed himself in the soup after recurring border conflicts with neighbouring states.

Sarma had continuously assured his voters of a permanent solution to the state’s border disputes with Nagaland, Arunachal, Mizoram, and Meghalaya. All these four states — Meghalaya in 1970, Arunachal in 1972, Nagaland in 1963, and Mizoram in 1972 — were carved out of Assam after statehood movements, but border disputes with the parent state remained.

Flare-ups are a regular occurrence. On August 29, a group from Meghalaya obstructed the construction of a road by the Assam government at Boko-Chaygaon on the Assam side, and claimed the area belonged to Meghalaya. As officials from both states arrived on the spot, there was a heated exchange of words.

There was another flare-up on August 20, too, along the Assam-Mizoram border on this occasion, after the Mizoram government alleged that the Assam Forest Department had destroyed rubber plantations within its jurisdiction.