As Assam Reels Under Floods, Political Sparring Takes Centre Stage

There has been long-pending demand for the Assam floods to be recognised as a ‘national problem’, for these floods every year devastate lakhs of people, thousands of hectares of cropland and uproot thousands from their home and hearths. This time as well, when the same demand arose, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma spoke in a ridiculing manner and called for ‘national solution’ instead.

President of Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), Lurinjyoti Gogoi, hit out at Sarma for his comment, saying, “Our resources are national resources, but our problems are not.”

Gogoi has been visiting flood-affected areas of Khowang, Tingkhang, Duliajan, etc., in Dibrugarh district. He told The Wire that the scale of flood is so huge that the existing system appears incapable of handling it.

“Assam needs a good solution of this calamity. The economic and human losses every year in Assam due to flood would exceed that of the rest of the states combined in our country. This is the main reason of Assam’s economic backwardness,” he added.

Gogoi lashed out at Union home minister Amit Shah, who said that a “permanent solution” to floods in Assam is to build about 50 large ponds in the state to capture flood water. According to Gogoi, the proposal of Shah is “futile” for Assam.

“This is mockery and an insult to the people of Assam, who suffer every year in flood and know much better about the futility of Shah’s proposal. The NDA [National Democratic Alliance] government, which celebrated ‘Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav’, should look at the data of 75 years of floods in Assam and then minister like Amit Shah should say something,” he added.

Experts from the state also concur with Gogoi’s views, saying that Shah’s proposal is untenable for Assam, as one has to cross five to six rivers if anyone travels at least 50 kilometres in most parts of the state. These rivers flow as tributaries and join the might Brahmaputra.

Gogoi sought to contrast the response of former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru with that of Shah to floods in Assam. He slammed Shah for calling it “flood-like situation when lakhs of people are affected and hundreds of animals died”.

On the other hand, he said, “Nehru came to Dibrugarh to see the flood in 1950, when the 8.7 magnitude great earthquake brought permanent changes to Assam’s topography and flood as well. He initiated the embankment around Dibrugarh town during that time with some materials he brought with him. Dibrugarh town, which lies below the level of Brahmaputra, has been protected by that initiative of Nehru.”

Others have also faulted the response of the Union government to floods in the state.

Recently, water resource minister of Assam government, Pijush Hazarika stated that the Union government has arranged two loans for Assam to fight the floods – one from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the other from World Bank, together accounting for Rs 5,000 crore. He said that 90% of the loans will be repaid by the Union government while rest 10% by state government. This indicates that the Union government is in no mood to give special package to Assam.

“Isn’t this something serious? Why can’t the Union government declare special relief package to Assam? Who will repay the loans if not us?”said Mira Borthakur, the president of Aaasam Pradesh Mahila Congress.

“People of Assam are kind-hearted and hospitable but they are not fools to get swayed with such lures of the government. During the Manmohan Singh government, Assam used to receive over Rs 500 crore relief package during floods, but during the Modi regime, it has received almost nothing. During the period of 2018-2023, the flood relief packages have gone down tremendously and the Union government has not given us even 10% of what was needed,” she said. “If the Centre can give crores of special packages to other states, then why not for Assam? This is step-motherly attitude of the Centre towards Assam.”

Also read: Assam Floods: Over 24 Lakh People Affected, Death Toll Reaches 70

“The chief minister has told that out of 3.5 crore population of Assam, over 2 crore poeple are beneficiaries of welfare schemes. This shows that an overwhelming majority of the population is economically backward. This goes against what Himanta keeps saying that Assam would be amongst top five states in the country in terms of development,” she added.

The Opposition alleges chief minister Sarma is only interested in “optics” referring to him visiting those affected by floods in different parts of the state. “When our poor CM has not much to give to the suffering people, he has at least come to see the,” remarked Balindra Saikia, a CPI (ML) leader.

“Instead of spending so much on chief minister’s visists throughout the state, efforts should be made to empower the administration. Sarma should refrain from using public money for his optics,” Saikia added.

Glancing through the numbers

According to the flood reports by the Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA), a maximum of over 24 lakh people were affected in a short span of July 1 and 10. Approximately, 70,000 hectares of cropland was damaged during the same period. Nearly the same level of damage gets repeated every year in Assam.

Glancing through the statistics would help one to understand the sudden catastrophe the floods bring, where villages can get washed away overnight giving people no time to escape. On top of that, the minimal early warning system and administrative apathy in early preparedness have not helped people either.

On July 1, as ASDMA reports suggest, the total number of affected people were 6.5 lakhs while the crop land damaged were around 26,000 hectares. It rose exponentially within just four days to affect over 24 lakhs (July 5) and damaged around 63000 hectares of cropland.

The worse affected districts have been Darrang, Lakhimpur, Dhemaji, Majuli, Cachar, Hailakandi, Golaghat, Nagaon, Morigaon, Barpeta, Nalbari, Dhubri. District of Dhubri tops in terms of affected people with a number of over 7 lakh, while Golaghat district sustains the number of over a lakh continuously for nine days. Nagaon, on the other hand, shows to have a large span of cropland damage (over 18000 hectares) consistently.

Importantly, Golaghat houses a major portion of the Kaziranga National Park (KNP), a UNESCO world heritage site, now submerged under water continuously for over 10 days. This has led to death of hundreds of animals, including one horned rhinos, the flagship species of KNP.

However, this number is contested by activist and youth leader Pranab Doley. Speaking to The Wire, Doley said, “The death of animals could be thousands if we consider the intensity of the flood. We were told that 36 highlands were built inside KNP, which is subjected to be verified. One or two such highlands that can be seen from outside of the forest and one can easily guess that they are no bigger than 100 square foot. These have failed to shelter the animals and that’s why we see herds of them crossing the NH 715 through KNP searching for shelter in the highlands of Karbi Hills.”

“These are their natural corridors which have been disrupted severely over the years and the recent controversy around land acquisition at Inle Pothar for Hyatt group and TATA is an epitome of it,” he added.

Breaching of embankments 

Tall embankments in Assam are a symbol of the colonial period, an effort to protect mainly the tea and oil towns during the British rule. Post-independence, India has continued with the strategy. Keeping aside the argument that embankments cause more harm than benefits, and accept for a moment that these large structures capable of protecting places from the tides of rivers, then also it needs to be said that breaching of them cause mammoth devastation.

The embankments are necessary to be maintained and repaired every year strictly before the rains start, that is during February-March. However, like always, this has also been negelected this year too, resulting in the breaching of embankments that caused havoc.

For example, in the worst affected Bonkowal area of Golaghat district, people saw breaching of the embankment on July 2. “This embankment was built in 1969 to protect the region from Brahmaputra. The embankment is also the Bonkowal-Negheriting connecting road. This was breached grossly due to the apathy shown towards maintenance. There were leakages in places, which had to repired,” said Soneswar Narah, the chief advisor of Jeepal Krishak Shramik Sangha.

Notably, while water resource minister Pijush Hazarika visited the area, he had to face protests by Jeepal Krishak Shramik Sangha. An elderly woman staying in a relief camp confronted the minister when he said that she should be arrested, which triggered the protest led by Jeepal. Notably, chief minister Sarma visited the place just a day or so after the incident took place.

“Hazarika and Sarma both ultimately pushed the ball into Atul Bora’s (minister in Assam government) court. Both have told that Bora knows what is to be done and he will do. The people, therefore, do not feel assured even after CM’s visit,” Narah told The Wire.

The Bonkowal region has a tragic history of flood. In 1987, similar massive flood breached the embankment and washed away several villages overnight. It took 30-37 years for people of the region to start flourishing again, but 2024 flood may have been nipped in the bud.

Sildubi, Mohpara and Borbeel are some fringe villages of KNP spanning from Bagori range to Kohora range that are inundated in the massive flood, damaging livestock and people’s lives.

Similar instance came from Majuli, the river island and a protracted pride symbol of Assam. Lower Majuli region witnessed the terror of flood this time after several years spanning from the back side of Auniati satra (a monestry) to Goalgaon, as social activist Ranjit Doley told The Wire from Majuli. Agreeing that there is apathy of maintenance of embankments from administration and government, Ranjit Doley added, “One more issue occurred this time. There are sluice gates at Nadiadubi and these were not opened at time and the water pressure kept mounting in one side of the embankment which eventually breached it. Had the water levels at both sides of the embankments were maintained, there would have been less devastation where three houses were washed away instantly.”

Majuli-based journalist Rajib Patir told The Wire that the sluice gates were not opened to protect some fisheries of political leaders. “But eventually these were also affected,” he added. The breached embankment, according to Patir, was constructed recently during Sarbananda Sonowal’s tenure.

On the other hand, Kampur and Raha regions of Nagaon district have seen floods twice within a month and several places are still under water. The residents of Kampur area face floods every year due to Kopili and Haria rivers and they start getting their stuff packed from April-May, readying themselves to move to the relief camps. Over time, water released from Kopili and Karbi Langpi dams have worsened the flood scenario due to which paddy cultivation gets seriously threatened, as some locals told The Wire.

Sandipan Talukdar is a Guwahati-based independent journalist.