Authorities in India’s northeastern state of Assam have announced plans to issue gun licences to “indigenous” residents living near the volatile border with Bangladesh.
Critics warn that this move could inflame tensions in the already sensitive region.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, a leading figure in the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the new initiative aims to protect Assamese-speaking communities who, he claims, face security threats from across the border.
“In light of the current situation in Bangladesh, people in border areas feel unsafe,” Sarma said on Wednesday, unveiling a new government website through which “indigenous people, who perceive a threat to their lives and reside in sensitive areas, can apply for arms licenses.”
While India enforces strict gun control laws nationwide, this exception in Assam has sparked criticism from opposition lawmakers and civil rights groups, who say the move could escalate violence and deepen communal divides.
“This will lead to gang violence and crimes based on personal vendettas,” Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi posted on X.
“This is not governance. It’s a dangerous step backward towards lawlessness.”
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Assam, with a population of about 31 million, is ethnically and religiously diverse.
Roughly 35 percent of the population are Bengali-speaking Muslims, according to the 2011 census, while most others are Hindus, primarily Assamese speakers.
Sarma’s government has pursued a series of controversial policies aimed at asserting the dominance of indigenous Assamese communities, including mass eviction drives targeting what he calls “illegal foreigners or doubtful citizens” — a term widely seen as aimed at Bengali-speaking Muslims.
Many of these communities have lived in Assam for generations and are Indian citizens. But tensions have risen further since the 2019 implementation of a citizenship verification exercise in the state, which excluded nearly two million people, many of them Muslims.
The recent political upheaval in neighbouring Bangladesh — a country historically aligned with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government — has only heightened anxieties. Sarma has warned that unrest in Bangladesh could spill over into Assam, creating a climate of insecurity for locals.
Analysts say the gun licence move fits a broader pattern of the BJP using identity politics in northeastern India, where complex histories of migration and ethnic strife continue to shape policy and fuel unrest.