Modi’s jibe at Congress over Assam and east Pakistan has a contemporary ring

The Prime Minister’s reference to Assam stalwart Gopinath Bordoloi’s role in preventing the state being lumped with east Pakistan resonates with concerns over the influx of illegal migrants from Bangladesh and their access of land and welfare resources. Far from being a manipulation of historical record, there was a serious danger of Assam becoming a victim of the insidious Cabinet Mission Plan of 1947 that clubbed the state with Bengal.

There is little doubt that Assam’s first chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi was instrumental in convincing the Congress Working Committee about the folly of clubbing the state with what became east Pakistan. The Congress leadership erroneously believed that the resistance of Bordoloi and other Assam leaders to being lumped with Sylhet and other areas was delaying Independence. Bordoloi’s determined advocacy ensured that fears that migrations encouraged by the British would become the basis of the Muslim League’s demand for Assam’s inclusion in east Pakistan were not realised.