The Anger on the streets

-Monikangkan Barooah |

The World is set on the fire and so is the Northeast part of India. There are protests in every place around the world that one may come with. Be it Hong kong, Moscow, Budapest, Bagdad, Tehran, Istanbul, Spain, Lebanon, Bolivia or any part in the world that you name it. There is resonance of similar anger in the provinces or in states within a country too. It seems the world is heading for a change. The change too reverberates in areas like Assam, Tripura etc. People’s aspirations have been put on hold by those in power.

The seeds of unrest started 30 years ago, after the fall of Soviet Union and the spread of Globalism. The heyday of liberal democratic capitalism, free market fundamentalism has engulfed the world and helped growing economic and cultural clashes between the educated urbanites, which thrived and the rural masses that were left behind. The effects of Globalisation became too cosmopolitan and deracinated the people in their respective regions. Globalisation tends to be the realm of elite and this class of neoliberals interact within a westernised milieu. The Goods and services created by Globalisation have failed to dent the aspirations of the indigenous people and are left behind by creating a void. Though they brandish the state-of- the-art devices on their hand as well as other day to day livelihoods, it has greatly failed to banish their ethnicity, culture, creed and inherent spirit of being indigenous.

The aspirations of Assamese people have been subverted for years. The colonial policies of British to bring people for their works and subsequent governments in transferring power to people and on Independent India, has corroborated policies of British to encourage immigrants to earn their mandate to rule the region. The leaders barring one or two have submitted to the will of the power hungry politician since the year of 1937 and the subsequent populist leaders have followed the suit. The regional parties that formed on the sole objective of deporting the illegal immigrants too started the policies of appeasement of refugees and illegal immigrants. It is the arrogance of a government and their leaders whose empty rhetoric unmatched by caring policies forces detested and deprived Indigenous people to vote with their feet. The concept of Assam and Assamese has been cut into pieces by commissioned intellectuals who created confusions in the minds of half-baked scholars, to question its very existence. Despite of all that it thrived and survived for years and consciousness of ‘being Assamese’ has been rising. The political leaders over a period of time have often failed to judge the mood of the indigenous people and lead their aspirations of Assamese. Instead the Government of India has said in the UN floor that “There are no indigenous people in India as India is like a melting pot”. This has the offshoot of Globalisation that may have sufficed that concocted term of ‘Melting Pot’. But then the fire persists and snowballing protests in the streets of Assam, Tripura and other North-eastern states.

The populist onslaught came in different forms in different parts of the world. In Europe it is in the form of nationalist strongmen like Vladimir Putin in Russia; Viktor Mihaly Orban in Hungary; the white ethnic nationalism of Donald Trump, and Mr Boris Johnson for pro Brexit stand in UK. In India it has been coined into the Hindu nationalism of Narendra Modi and in China it is the increasing authoritarianism and concentration of power of Xi Jinping. The populist backlash has attained different forms in different parts of the world, like Yellow vests in France – where French motorists from rural areas protesting against the increasing in fuel tax wearing the yellow vests, and Pink Tide (Spanish- marea rosa, Portuguese- onda rosa) in Latin America i.e the revolutionary wave and perception of turn towards left-wing governments. These protests taken place due to the economic disparity arisen out of affects of globalisation. The resultants are the populist means in the disguise of strong nationalistic or racist leaders.

The anger against the populists is still rising. The Populist economic policies has destroys growth. The ‘yellow vast’ in French and the protest in Chile are led by those who were economically left behind. Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico has brought down the economy to a standstill and so is the Populist Leader Imran Khan of Pakistan. Economic growth has slowed down in Pakistan over the past year, while inflation has been skyrocketed. The Government in Pakistan is trying to widen the country’s nonexistent tax net and as a result the car sales fell to 39 percent in the last quarter. On the other hand the oil rich Venezuela is an economic disaster due to the faulty policies of corrupt politicians. IMFs world economic outlook described Venezuela as being a wartime economy for the fifth consecutive year and Bloomberg rated Venezuela last on its misery index in 2019. Demonstrators in Indonesia returned to the streets of Jakarta to oppose changes to the criminal code and a new law that critics fear will undermine the battle against corruption. Hong Kong’s protests started in June against plans to allow extradition to mainland China.

The anger vibrates in the regional level too and certainly with the core issue of identity of Indigenous Assamese and Tripuri people against Citizenship Bill 2019(CAB). In Assam, The overriding here hasn’t been religion but ethnicity, culture, language and political power. The political leaderships at different times tried to change this bonhomie over the past decades and intended to polarise and position their vote bank. Bharatiya JanaTa Party (BJP) Knows that CAB along with nationwide NRC process is a divisive polarising instrument that forces its opponents to take positions that amounts to “Muslim appeasement” which they can ride on for next few decades as they sailed on Ram Temple or article 370.

The Government of the day knows that migration would continue and as perceived as the sea level is rising and forcing more Bangladeshi people to migrate.

The populist and authoritarian regimes are losing their legitimacy. In Bolivia, the outburst has resulted and toppled Evo Morales, who stands to be accused to rig an election. In Lebanon the ousted Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has paid $16 Million to a bikini clad model while his countrymen were starving. In Hong kong and Indonesia the urban middle class has resorted to protest.

These days it does not take much to set off a giant wave of anger. The world is unsteady and ready to blow and so the Northeast and its indigenous people. The protests in all these places are leaderless and so it is unrealistic to expect them to have a common agenda to fight the menace based on region specific issues. Here in Assam, the anger is not under any influence of any leadership but the people in general resorted to the protests and the question remain is what’s next? What may come after failure of such populist leaders and their governments?

Time has come to write a new social narration for all these places to satisfy all section of people of what they need most. The future belongs to those who can successfully write that narration.