Skip to content Skip to navigation

Guwahatians defy militant diktat, observe Republic Day

In an open defiance of militant diktat, Guwahatians celebrated India's 59th Republic Day with great enthusiasm. Residents in various localities hoisted the National Flag in a dauntless display of determination to uphold the dignity of the Tri-colour and the Indian Republic against all threats.

At the Guwahati Press Club, considerable number of writers and senior citizens joined the scribes in observing the Day, where the Tri-colour was hoisted by veteran journalist Dhirendra Nath Chakravarty followed by a spirited speech by him. Chakravorty made an appeal to the militants give up violence and join hands with the mainstream to ensure Assam's smooth march to prosperity.

He said the Republic Day has great relevance for the Indians as it symbolises the country's resolve to determine its own destiny. The Indian independence also paved the way for the liberation of other Asian and African countries as a result of which about 150 crore of the world population could free themselves from colonial bondage.

Chakravarty called upon the people to remember the 4,000 martyrs and their sacrifices in the 1757 Battle of Plassey, the 10,000 martyrs of 1857 Sepoy Mutiny and the martyrs of the 1942-46 movement against British colonialism. They should also remember the 150 martyrs who had to go to the gallows. Of them, seven belonged to Assam. They included Piyali Phukan, Piyali Barua, Maniram Dewan and Kushal Konwar.

The participants of the Press Club programmme, later took out a procession which paraded the main thoroughfares of Panbazar and Dighalipukhuripar shouting slogans like Bande Mataram, Bharat Mata Ki Jai and Jai Ai Asom.

It may be recalled here that a few days ago, a group of 14 journalists and writers made an appeal to the people to defy the ULFA-KLO-backed boycott call and observe the Republic Day across the State. They included Nirupama Bargohain, Dhirendra Nath Chakravorty, Rupam Baruah, Nava Thakuria, Ranen Kumar Goswmai, Bhupen Bargohain, Hiten Mahanta, Promode Kalita, Sabita Lahkar, Mukul Kalita, Manish Goswami, Ajit Patowary, Kumud Ranhan Das and Girindra Kumar Karji.

In Kumarpara and Athgaon localities too, residents observed the Day with a befitting manner. At Kumarpara Pachali, hoisting the National Flag, former Gauhati High Court judge Jitendranath Sarma said the people of Assam should bow down to militant threats. Cowardice never pays, he said and added that the State today demands boldness from its people to forge ahead. The programme was organized by the Jai Hind Club in association with the local people. Students of Angels' English School presented the national Anthem at the function.

At Athgaon Pukhuripar, the Nagarik Committee of GMC Ward number 19, Kumarpara Shanti Sabha Mahila Samity, Ward number 19 Women's Cell and Athgaon Pukhuripar Youth Club jointly organized the celebrations with a day-long programme, which included various competitions among the school children, felicitation to senior citizens and a cultural evening. The National Flag was hoisted on the occasion by Nirmal Kumar Choudhury, a social worker of the locality.
Author info

Nava Thakuria's picture

Senior journalist based in Guwahati.

Add new comment

Other Contents by Author

Landlocked Himalayan nation Nepal prepares for its ninth national election  on 5 March, which was necessitated with the collapse of its government in Kathmandu during September last year following an anti-corruption mass uprising, which was initiated by the young people and resulted in the killing of dozens of agitators and injuring hundreds other. The south Asian country of around 30.55 million people, sandwiched between two giants India and Tibet/China, has readied all necessary arrangements for the single day polling through ballot papers under the protection of  nearly 3,50,000 security personnel (with additional armed forces kept ready for an unwanted emergency situation...
Even all political parties, not to speak of millions of fans and well-wishers of Assam’s revered cultural icon  Zubeen Garg, continue preaching for sparing the maverick singer’s name in doing politics, his mysterious death last year in a foreign land may dominate the electoral politics in the forthcoming legislative polls. Indications surface that Assam assembly elections (scheduled for March-April 2026 along with West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Puducherry) will observe a high voltage campaigning on  Zubeen’s unexplained demise in Singapore on 19 September 2025 and subsequent investigation and judicial processes. Even after five months of his final departure, Zubeen continues...
As Bangladesh has constituted a new government under the leadership of  Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) after a largely fair & peaceful national election on 12 February 2026, the people of eastern India (the region virtually embraces the poverty stricken country except a few kilometers in Myanmar and the Bay of Bengal)  hope for a progressive regime in Dhaka enjoying political stability and pursuing economic developments to over 170 million people in the south Asian nation. The Muslim majority country continues to grow as a headache for the north-eastern states, more precisely Assam, for at least two  reasons namely unabated influx of migrants and regional security...
Amid high security arrangements across the country, polling begins this morning at 7:30 am for the highly projected 13th Jatiya Sansad election in Bangladesh, where over 2000 candidates representing 50 political parties along with many independent contestants are in the fray. The Muslim majority nation has over  12.77 crore registered voters including 6.27 crore women and 1,232 third-genders, who are voting for electing   299 representatives (out of 300 seats in the national assembly). Over 42,000 polling centres will facilitate the electorates to exercise their franchise (through  ballots in person) till 4:30 pm (on 12 February 2026). The election will be conducted...
As Bangladesh heads for 13th Parliamentary election and  the referendum on  July National Charter simultaneously on Thursday (12 February 2026), the interim government chief Professor Muhammad Yunus urged all participating candidates to rise above personal and party interests to prioritize greater interest of the Muslim majority nation regardless of the poll-outcomes. Addressing the nation of over 170 million people ahead of the much watched electoral exercises, Nobel peace laureate  Dr Yunus commented that victory as well as defeat is an integral part of democracy and hence after the election, they should dedicate themselves to build a new, just, democratic, and inclusive...
Is it possible to have a quasi-judicial body like the Press Council of India to survive for weeks without its chairperson? Should the largest democracy on Earth put such an example where its government recognized autonomous media watchdog faces an existential crisis as the 15th council of PCI still devoid of a functioning head and 13 seats? How come a press council runs its business without filling these 13 seats, meant for millions of media professionals, for more than a year now, whereas the term of a council is limited to three years only? Many such pertinent questions  emerge among media professionals in the   south Asian nation, as the regular three-year term (as well as...
Amid an existential crisis in the Guwahati-based Assam Tribune group of newspapers, which worsened after the Covid-19 pandemic, a popular Assamese weekly newspaper lost its publication in the latter part of 2025. Asom Bani, once a mainstream weekly for Assamese readers for decades, stopped hitting the stands from September last year, as the management lost interest in continuing its printing every Friday. Even though the seven-decade-old Assamese-language weekly was lost from the media market, the management did not make any statement about Asom Bani’s fate. Prior to its departure, the weekly was merged with Dainik Asom, an acclaimed Assamese daily from the prestigious media house, as its...
Bangladesh, which recently witnessed turmoil following the demise of a young radical leader Sharif Osman Bin Hadi amid anti-India rhetoric, now gradually returns to normalcy, as the south Asian nation also prepares for its next general election scheduled  for 12 February 2026. The highly sought after polls, as the sitting Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina faced an overthrow in the backdrop of a student-led mass uprising in July-August 2024, however misses the participation of Hasina’s party Awami League, which used to rule the Muslim majority country of 170 million people for several years. The ousted premier along with thousands of  her party men continue to stay in neighbouring...
It may be amazing but true, that the largest democracy on Earth continues waiting for a fully functioning government-sponsored media watchdog for more than a year now. Press Council of India (PCI), a quasi-judicial body, which was initiated to safeguard and nurture the freedom of press in the country, remains almost a non-functioning entity as the term of PCI’s 14th council  expired on 5 October 2024. Since then various initiatives to constitute the statutory 15th council to carry forward its prescribed activities confronted different hurdles. Currently the PCI has its chairperson and secretary along with only five members representing Rajya Sabha, University Grants Commission, Bar...
An initial sadness and grief following the unforeseen death of Assam’s cultural icon in Singapore at only 53 have slowly turned into outrages with a sole demand for justice to  Zubeen Garg, as millions of his fans and admirers got convinced that something wrong had happened to their prince of melody during an unplanned sea-yacht outing in the southeast Asian nation. The heart-breaking news that brought the India’s north-eastern State with  3.3 million people to a standstill turning its capital city into a sea of humans weeping, sobbing, crying and exclaiming why Zubeen was put to die in the islands nation, thousands kilometer away from his motherland, on 19 September 2025. The...