I am fraught with the apprehension that we Assamese will only live on, in a gene bank. With no opposition worth the name and a regional party of no weight, the old Assam is being sacrificed on the altar of opportunism and vote bank politics. This is one of the blackest periods of Assam’s history. Assam will be lost to the dynamics of the changing demographics unless a miracle of sane governance finally descends upon this country this year.
In Upper Assam, one finds most of the old Assamese families giving up their hearth and home to be either in our glorious capital or outside the state. The trading community has smoothly moved from being the settlers to the settled while we Assamese are becoming the settlers in other lands, beyond our state. In Lower Assam, the old Assamese families are huddling into ghetto like conditions against the steady and no longer silent invasion of last many decades.The invaders are closing in to claim their prize.
Our country faces challenges of rampant corruption, divisive politics of religion, caste and creed, feudalistic mindsets and worsening law and order situation. But none of these challenges are close to what should be the one and only concern of every Assamese -- not of being Hindu or Muslim, not of being a Muttock, Tiwa, Rajbonshi or Bodo . The greater Assamese society has been torn at the seams with the petty politics of regionalism . Only an united Assam can stand tall against the insidious enemy and by falling prey to the ‘Divide and Rule’ realpolitik , we Assamese are only assisting our enemies to dig our own graves.
