GUWAHATI: Bolstering BJP’s quest for a repeat of its 2014 success story in Assam, Prime Minister Narendra Modi kicked off his Assam campaign for 2019 in two upper Assam constituencies on Saturday. Missing from the rhetoric was any mention of the two citizenship determining exercises that have kept the saffron party busy these past few years — the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which nearly brought BJP to its knees in the northeast, and the National Register of Citizens (NRC).Instead, Modi spoke of the Assam Accord and Scheduled Tribe (ST) status for six communities of Assam, five of which will play a decisive role in the first phase of the Lok Sabha election. The promises are old. The context, slightly altered.The “promise” to grant ST status, for instance, is now a matter BJP is “seriously considering”. In his first address at Moran, in Dibrugarh constituency, Modi said, “The NDA government is seriously considering Scheduled Tribe status for six communities — Tai Ahom, Matak, Moran, Chutiya, Koch Rajbongshi and tea tribes.” The line is familiar. He had used it, successfully, before the 2014 Lok Sabha and 2016 Assam assembly election to win over the six OBC communities, which comprise nearly half the state’s population.In his second address at Gohpur, in the Tezpur constituency, Modi went back to the “illegal migrant” refrain, but with caution. “The results of the way Congress governments handled infiltration in the ‘70s are evident now. Assam and the northeast continue to suffer. When we are trying to correct this historical blunder made by Congress, they act hurt, as if their own families are being affected,” Modi said.Reiterating what BJP president Amit Shah had said in Assam days ago, Modi said only BJP-led NDA can “free Assam and the country of illegal migrants and terrorists”. He added, “On one side is the dumdaar chowkidar (powerful watchman) and on the other, a mahamilavat wala parivar (a tainted family).”That BJP might sidestep any mention of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill is not surprising. It proposes citizenship for non-Muslim migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan — something Assam and the northeast have been resisting, on the grounds that the region is already dealing with Bangladeshi migration and does not want a religious angle to be added to what is already an incendiary matter. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha but is set to lapse after BJP could not table it in the Rajya Sabha.Modi also skipped talking about NRC, which, anti-citizenship protesters say, would stand nullified if the proposed amendment to the Citizenship Act were passed.Instead, he highlighted the “development” angle. “Assam, where only 40% of the homes had power and gas connections several decades after Independence, now has electricity and cooking fuel in almost every home,” the PM said.”

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