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Hindu girls, some of them minors, are being kidnapped by Muslim men to be forcibly married off to members of their community in several districts of lower Assam. The kidnappings and marriages are all part of a larger game plan of minority leaders to change the demographic character of the state.
Making these allegations, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has shot off a letter to the Assam Chief Secretary urging him to take immediate action. The letter was sent to the Chief Secretary by the president of the VHP's Uttar Purva Prant Jyotish Chandra Pathak last Monday. The Uttar Purva Prant of the VHP covers the Brahmaputra valley of Assam, Meghalaya and Arunachal Pradesh.
Speaking to The Assam Tribune, Pathak said that incidents of kidnapping and subsequent marriage of Hindu girls have become quite frequent in the state, particularly in Nalbari, Bongaigaon and Dhubri districts. "It is being done with the ulterior motive of converting the whole region into a kingdom of Islam," he alleged.
In the letter to the Chief Secretary, the VHP said that there is an "increasing trend" of organised kidnapping of Hindu girls, both minor and adult, and in all these cases police either does not nab the culprits or they cannot do so for various reasons, including political interference. It is not only in cases of kidnappings that the police find themselves tied down. The men in uniform also fear to take action against infiltrators and anti-national elements among the minority community, alleged Pathak. Unabated infiltration is steadily altering the demographic character of the state, he stated, adding that the Muslims now constitute 35 percent of the state's population and are a majority in seven districts. "It is a big force today," he said. Along with infiltration, the activities of the ISI is also increasing, he said. He alleged that the madrassas that are coming up all over the state are preaching the jehadi ideology among the young Muslims.
The VHP president said that the ruling Congress Government is doing nothing about these threats. "They are simply playing vote bank politics," the retired bureaucrat stated. He said that the lower Assam districts are facing the maximum brunt of the infiltration. Pathak said that a VHP delegation had recently deposed before the Supreme Court advocating the need to repeal the IM (DT) Act. The VHP has also taken it upon itself to rouse public consciousness about these issues, he said.
Regular meetings are being organised at all levels to make the people aware about these problems. Baithaks, satsangas, Bajrang Akhadas and Durga Vahini trainings are also being carried out throughout the state, he said. These have had some positive effects, he said, with people becoming more forthcoming in reporting infiltrators to the police. Some 5,500 VHP workers from the Uttar Purva Prant had gone to Ayodhya during the latest programme there. Most of them have returned, Pathak said. The workers were from Guwahati, Nagaon, Karbi Anglong, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Jorhat, Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Goalpara, Bongaigaon, Kokrajhar and Dhubri districts, he said. The Ram Mandir issue is a matter of cultural identity of the Hindus, he said.
Pathak, refuting reports that a
trishul (trident) distribution programme of the VHP is underway in the
state, said that no such programme has been carried out so far. But he
did not rule out such a programme in the future. Right now, the Uttar Purva
Prant of the VHP is laying stress on its social welfare programmes. The
VHP runs Vanvasi Kalyan Kendras in the state where tribal students are
provided free education, boarding and other facilities. The VHP also undertakes
free health care programmes in the backward areas of the state, said Pathak.
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