Bihu Dance, Assam
By Nava Thakuria*
Guwahati: Pitting Assamese against Marwaris in Sibsagar is bad politics. However, in a “shocking” incident in Sibsagar, the Marwari community was compelled to apologise for a crime committed by some individuals in the presence of a State minister. The incident highlights how some people of the state still continue to nurture hatred against outsiders (non-Assamese Indians) since the days of Assam agitation.
“It is shocking that an Assam minister could endorse such an act where some aged males and females had to kneel for the public apology in his presence” Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) – an influential forum of the local intelligentsia and social activists, stated today.
“First thing first. The accused individuals who physically assaulted a minor female arm wrestler at Babupatty in Sibsagar of eastern Assam on August 13, 2024, must be punished under the law,” PPFA demanded.
While already a due legal process has begun, the PPFA stated it was concerned that the entire community (read the Marwaris) has been made responsible and compelled to apologise to the locals.
In a media statement issued today, the PPFA posed a question if tomorrow some Assamese youths working outside the State commit crimes, should the entire community be punished and asked to tender an apology?
The forum argued that the agitators, who instigated thousands of residents to hit the streets demanding justice for the victim girl, may now stand behind a corrected National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam with the nationally approved base year.
It claimed that these Assamese-centric agitators would never raise legitimate voices against the illegal foreigners from Bangladesh, who have slowly challenged the entire Assamese culture with changing demography since 1951.
“Since the days of the historic Assam movement, it’s observed that the local community leaders remain apprehensive about the Hindi-speaking residents in the State, but they are too soft for the illegal migrants. The classic example was the Assam Accord (signed in the presence of the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to culminate the six years old agitation in 1985 after hundreds made supreme sacrifice), which agreed to recognize hundreds of thousands of East Pakistani nationals (who entered Assam till 21 March 1971) as Indians and to allow to live in Assam,” the PPFA highlighted.
*Senior journalist
Image by Vikramjit Kakati from Pixabay
