Consequences of rift in AASU

Differences among the leaders of the All Assam Students' Union (AASU) coming out in the public domain does not bode well for the future of the influential student body. It also has ramification for the long-drawn struggle of the indigenous people in Assam for protection of their language, culture, and heritage from various threats. Such a conflict was inevitable as differences had cropped up within the students' body over the involvement of their leaders in the formation of the new regional party -- the 'Assam Jatiya Parishad'. Involvement of a section of the AASU leaders in the formation of this new party is paradoxical to the avowed position of AASU that it is an apolitical organisation. This paradox has been grappling the students' body ever since it gave birth to the 'Asom Gana Parishad' (AGP) after the curtains were drawn on the six-year-long anti-foreigners agitation and the historic Assam Accord was signed in 1985. Its involvement in electoral politics behind the smokescreen of an "apolitical organisation" gradually diluted the image of an influential pressure group.

Even then, the relevance of the Assam Accord in addressing the burning problem of illegal influx of Bangladeshi migrants has helped it retain its importance and influence in the political spheres.The core clauses of the Accord have remained unimplemented even after 35 years as the AGP, despite ruling the State for two terms. The regional party failed to take the required initiative for implementing the core clauses of detection, deletion of names from electoral rolls and expulsion of the illegal Bangladeshi migrants and constitutional safeguards for Assamese and other indigenous people. Sustained agitations by the AASU brought the two core clauses to the centrestage and revived its image as an influential students' body championing the cause of protecting the identities of the indigenous people from existential threat posed by unbated influx of illegal migration through the porous India-Bangladesh border. Updating of the National Register of Citizens (NRC)-1951 in Assam leading to publication of the final list of the citizens' register in a Supreme Court-mandated exercise bolstered its relentless campaign for timebound implementation of the Assam Accord.

However, the students' body seeking to bargain its indirect support to a particular political party during Assembly polls in lieu of implementation of the Accord after voted to power gave a section of its leaders the elbow room to cultivate their political aspirations from its platform. A rippling effect of this has also become prominent in other student organisations representing different ethnic communities. Passing of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act-2019 triggered apprehension of dilution of the core clauses of the Assam Accord among the staunch supporters of the Accord. The AASU took the lead in spearheading the anti-CAA agitation which resonated well with the Accord supporters. Weakening of the AASU on account of tussle among its leaders will have a direct bearing on the movement for implementation of the Assam Accord. The Accord clauses were articulated to reflect the strong secular foundation of the greater Assamese society and make no distinction of the illegal Bangladeshi migrants on basis of their language of religion. The CAA seeks to dilute this secular fabric of the Assamese society by facilitating determination of Indian citizenship on basis of religion and add to the existential threats to Assam and other indigenous language speakers by seeking to grant citizenship beyond the cut-off date to a particular language group. Being the signatory of the Accord the AASU enjoys the legally acknowledged right to press for its implementation and defend it from any dilution at the official fora.

Weakening of the AASU's core credential, therefore, will have far reaching consequences. The students' body must undertake organisational reforms to make its functioning more transparent and democratic in order to regain support of the student community as well as others in the society. It cannot be seen as a platform of grooming politicians who have no commitment to the causes it has been championing. This will require empowering its members to participate in the formulation of its policies through a democratically elected setup. Absence of girl students in the leadership also have reduced it to a male-dominated organisation. A conflict in the organisation will disillusion its members and push them away. Political issues overshadowing the issues that also matter to the student community such as educational infrastructure, better teaching-learning environment, laboratories, and other research amenities etc., have reduced the AASU platform to an arena for hardcore electoral politics much contrary to its claim of being an "apolitical" organisation. All eyes will be on the forthcoming general conference of the students' body scheduled to be held from November 18 to 21 as to whether the students' body will utilise the four days to deliberate on these issues to restore its image of a true student organisation. The present AASU leadership must stop burying their heads in the sand.