New Delhi: Expressing confidence of returning to power in Assam, BJP Lok Sabha MP and Assam in-charge Baijayant Panda defended Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s stand on “illegal immigrants”, saying they were an “assault on Assamese culture” who had “invaded” the state.
In an interview with ThePrint, the senior BJP leader spoke at length on a range of issues, from “illegal immigration” and the impact of the West Asia crisis to the opposition’s campaign against the BJP and why some BJP leaders had quit the party.
Panda stressed that the West Asian crisis would not impact the elections as the Indian economy remained resilient under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership.
The BJP leader also rejected accusations that Sarma targeted the Muslim community under the guise of tackling “illegal infiltration”, describing such claims as a “narrative of an old ecosystem trying to keep alive its ever-shrinking base by creating such a fear psychosis”.
Chief Minister Sarma has said that his government has set a target of deporting between 10,000 and 15,000 foreigners annually from 2026.
Asked why many accuse Sarma of indulging in polarisation politics and targeting the Muslim community, Panda defended the chief minister.
“What exactly are the roots of the allegation of this polarisation? One is the crackdown on land grabbers. These are illegal immigrants whose forefathers deliberately chose not to be Indian—to break away from India—and yet, over 70-odd years, millions have invaded Assam,” he told ThePrint.
“I use the word invaded because they are not Indian citizens, and they have illegally grabbed land, forest land, and government land; it’s all out there. It’s not just a narrative; they have grabbed lands around ‘namars’ and ‘chhatras’, which are the religio-cultural ethos of Assam,” Panda said.
‘Namars’, or naamghars, and ‘chhatras, or s‘atras” are key socio-religious institutions of Assam’s Neo-Vaishnavite tradition
“The majority of the people who are land grabbers are illegal immigrants from a certain community, and they have been impacted,” he said.
Demographic changes
Panda also said the demographics of the state had changed since Independence, claiming that the Muslim population had increased significantly from 11 percent to 38 percent.
According to him, this increase had “not come about naturally” but “unnaturally” through an “invasion of illegal immigration in the millions”.
He added that many had earlier believed the BJP would never come to power in the state, as these “illegal immigrants” were unlikely to vote for the party.
“They are not even Assamese. They don’t speak like Assamese or wear Assamese clothes. This is the reason that many people used to say that the BJP would never come to government in Assam until 10 years ago,” he explained.
At the same time, Panda acknowledged that demographics could not be ignored, especially with an overwhelming number of people in some constituencies saying they would not vote for the BJP. He stressed that the BJP’s ‘Sabka Saath, Sabka Vikas’ philosophy would help it to secure voter support.
“You can’t totally avoid demographics. Now, if demographics in certain seats indicate an overwhelming percentage of people there openly state in surveys that they will not vote for the BJP, we have to be practical, but we don’t give up on anybody,” he said.
“Our philosophy is Sabka Saath Sabka Vikas. Even if you’re not a voter with us today, tomorrow you’ll be a voter with us, maybe 10 years later you’ll be a voter with us. That’s exactly what has happened in Assam, in the Northeast. In the last 10 years, people have started voting for us who had been predicted to never vote for us,” he added.
When asked why the BJP, in power at the Centre since 2014 and in Assam since 2016, has not addressed illegal infiltration, Panda said many steps had been taken.
“There has been a huge transformation but there is a backlog of more than seven decades. As I told you, past Congress governments facilitated millions and millions and millions of illegal immigrants due to vote bank politics,” Panda said.
“Large numbers of illegal immigrants have been pushed back. The flow itself has dwindled because they realise that the government here is not going to facilitate them anymore,” he added.
West Asia crisis
On the impact of the West Asia crisis on Assam elections, Panda said the Indian economy under Prime Minister Modi had gone from 11th position to almost close to the third position in the world and had remained the fastest-growing of the large economies for many years.
According to him, India’s inflation and fiscal deficit management was among the best in the world, far better than Japan, Singapore, the UK and the US.
He acknowledged that the crisis in West Asia was having some impact, but said the government had already planned for it.
“See this in the context of Assam. Now, just like the Indian economy has been the fastest-growing for so many years, very few people know that the state GDP of Assam has been growing the fastest within India,” Panda said.
“In fact, many people are shocked to hear that Assam’s GDP growth rate in the last five years is almost 50 percent higher than the average of the Indian states. And this is because of many new areas, new sectors in technology, in infrastructure,” he added.
Crediting Prime Minister Narendra Modi for this turnaround, Panda said the PM has been paying special attention to the northeast region.
“The PM has articulated right from the beginning that the neglected areas of the country, especially the northeast and the east, will get special attention. The PM just made his 77th visit to the northeast—into Assam. Compare this with his predecessor, who was technically representing Assam in the Rajya Sabha but made only 10 visits in a similar period,” he added.
Opposition in disarray
The BJP leader said the opposition was in a complete disarray with several quitting the party ahead of the elections next month. Former Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah and sitting Nagaon MP Pradyut Bordoloi recently quit the party and joined the BJP.
“This time, the opposition is in disarray. They are not united. Several opposition parties are contesting on their own. The Congress is in complete disarray. Their leadership in Assam is not accepted by the party itself, and a couple of very senior leaders have quit and have joined the BJP,” said Panda.
When asked about senior BJP leaders, including a cabinet minister, quitting the party and joining the Congress, Panda said it would not have much of an impact on the elections.
Sitting Cabinet Minister Nandita Gorlosa, a powerful tribal voice from the Dima Hasao region, resigned from the BJP over ticket distribution and joined the Congress.
“Those who have quit the BJP are junior people; these are people who were denied tickets. Now, when people are denied tickets and they change parties, they were never (with the) BJP to begin with. So we have had a couple of minor figures who have left, whereas senior leaders from the Congress, considered very significant, have quit and joined us,” he said.
(Edited by Sugita Katyal)