The Socialist Party (India) has released a hard-hitting fact-finding report on mass evictions in Assam, warning that the ongoing drives could amount to “ethnic cleansing” and create one of the gravest humanitarian crises in the region.
The report is based on a four-day field visit (2-5 September) by an SP(I) delegation, led by General Secretary Sandeep Pandey and Rumaan Mecci, which covered Goalpara, Dhubri, Lakhimpur, and Nalbari districts. The delegation, comprising eight members, met hundreds of evicted families, many of whom, despite possessing valid documents such as Aadhaar, voter ID, ration cards, and even inclusion in the 2019 NRC, were uprooted from their homes and left without rehabilitation.
In his preface to the report, Mir Shahid Saleem, SP(I) Vice President and in-charge of Human Rights and Minority Affairs, accused the Assam government under Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma of pursuing a “selective eviction drive” that overwhelmingly targets Bengali-speaking Muslims. Saleem alleged that around 60,000 people have already been rendered homeless and warned that, if unchecked, the campaign could spiral into “the biggest humanitarian crisis in the region.”
The report highlights that in Dhubri district alone, more than 1,200 families were displaced in July to clear 3,500 bighas of land for a proposed thermal power plant linked to the Adani Group. “This is dispossession for corporate gain,” the report said, noting the demolition of schools, health centres, mosques, and homes built under government schemes.
Niya Tapo, SP(I) Secretary, argued that the government is using the rhetoric of “development” and “anti-Bangladeshi” propaganda to mask what is in fact “a politics of hatred, silence, and displacement.”
In Goalpara district, the delegation recorded the destruction of Hasila Bill village, where 667 families were forcibly evicted in June. Community institutions, including schools, anganwadi centres, and even a mosque were demolished. Families now live in bamboo-and-tarpaulin shelters at sites like Karbala and Jannatpura, surviving largely on private relief.
The report cites testimonies of residents such as Mojida Begum, who possesses all citizenship documents including NRC inclusion, yet saw her home destroyed. Another, Aliya Khatoon, reported that her two daughters had to discontinue their college education due to trauma and displacement.
SP(I) also placed the Assam evictions in a wider political and legal framework, tracing the state’s troubled history with citizenship determination, from the Immigrants (Expulsion from Assam) Act, 1950, to the controversial NRC exercise of 2019. The report argues that Foreigners Tribunals, combined with recent amendments allowing District Commissioners to expel alleged “illegal immigrants” within 10 days, have created a system “designed to criminalise legitimate citizens.”
Motiur Rohman, activist and SP(I) leader from Assam, described the unfolding situation as “a humanitarian catastrophe in the making,” with international bodies already warning of genocide-like conditions targeting Bengali-speaking Muslims.
In Goalpara, the SP(I) fact-finding team found 667 families evicted; schools, PMAY houses, mosque destroyed; no state rehabilitation.
In Dhubri, the team found 1,200 families uprooted for power project; five mosques demolished; schools and health centre wiped out.
In Lakhimpur, the team found Assamese, Adivasi, and Miya Muslim families evicted; homes and farmland seized despite land receipts and PMAY allotments.
In Nalbari, the delegation found 93 families evicted from resettled flood victims’ colony; schools and community structures razed; land enclosed for unspecified projects.
The SP(I) fact-finding report situates Assam’s evictions within a broader pattern across the Northeast – citing the Manipur crisis, dam projects in Arunachal, and tribal land erosion in Tripura – arguing that the BJP-led governments have normalised displacement and communal polarisation as tools of governance.
The SP(I) urged immediate intervention by human rights groups, civil society, and international bodies to halt the evictions, restore citizenship rights, and provide rehabilitation to the displaced. “The Northeast deserves justice, not betrayal,” the report states.
The fact-finding delegation consisted of eight members of the Socialist Party (India) and allied organisations:
- Syed Tahseen Ahmad – Chairperson, Parliamentary Board, SP(I)
- Sandeep Pandey – Secretary General, SP(I)
- Niya Tapo – Secretary, SP(I)
- Sarbjit Kaushal – Member, National Committee, SP(I)
- Rajni Rani – Member, State Committee, SP(I), Punjab
- Shahid Kamal – Rashtra Sewa Dal
- Syed Abubakr – Freelance writer and activist
- Biju Borbaruah – Observer, SP(I), Assam
