Both Congress and BJP leadership in New Delhi have drawn flak in Assam for downplaying the flood fury in the state. Various parties and organizations have categorically alleged that neither Congress nor BJP has been serious on the perennial issue.
“Neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor BJP president Amit Shah has visited the flood-hit people. Doesn’t it suggest lack of seriousness of the people in the distant Delhi?,” said Mukul Saikia a Congressleader from Nagaon. Saikia said,” during UPA regime prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi along with several senior ministers visited the marooned people.”
AASU leaders in Dibrugarh said the NDA government is least bothered about the raving problem in Assam. “Haven’t you seen how during his stint as DoNER minister VK Singh refused to admit flood as the main problem confronting Assam?. They have sent Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal to wash the hands off.”
“No national leader wants Assam to march ahead. They lack seriousness. What forces the Congress and BJP leadership not to visit the state in the time of crisis? Are we not Indian?,” said a Arun Saikia a retired professor in Dhemaji.
AJYCPleaders in Tinsukia blamed it all on the state leadership. “Why Sarbananda Sonowal and Siddartha Bhattacarya can’t mount pressure on the prime minister or party leadership to visit the marooned people 6 months ahead of the assembly polls. They are waiting to visit the state just for poll campaigning?”
Achyut Das, a local KMSS leader in Bajali said “neither Tarun Gogoi nor Sarbananda Sonowal has the courage to take on the Centre alleging its lack of seriousness. Both they are resorting to blamegame only to divert their failures.”
BJP and its ruling coalition partners would have to pay heavy price in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls if what the experts dealing with the north eastern affairs say are any indication. Veteran journalist Sanjoy Hazarika said the escalating anger might adversely impact the BJP's voter base in the region. Excerpts from the interview with Sanjoy Hazarika, journalist author, and currently Director of Commonwealth Human Rights Initiative.
AT: How would you justify the seismic wave of protests in the entire north east against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016?
Sanjoy Hazarika: What is there to justify: this is public anger at the Centre for not listening to the concerns of people in the...
GUWAHATI: Jadu Deka can’t waste even an hour these days. Same it is in the cases of Jitu, Lakheswar, Pranab, Bitupan et al since Rongali Bihu is on the threshold. Only a couple of hours is left. With traditional Assamese Dhul on their shoulders they are busy with the preparation of huchori performance to mark the most vaunted spring festival commencing from Saturday. Achyut, the holder of the buffalo horn pipe is all set to mesmerize the onlookers in the nook and corner of the state in the Bihu Huchori performance in the house yards, shopping mall yards. Munna is well prepared with his flute like Dulu with his traditional cymbals to add huge value in the performance. Christened as...
The vexed illegal migrants issue in Assam has reached the United Nations when the Prabajan Virodhi Manch has screened an eye opening documentary at the ongoing UNHRC summit in Geneva on Thursday. Produced by the organization entitled Assam: The Silent Genocide, the documentary has highlighted the impact of the unabeted influx of the Bangladeshi nationals from across the border. The border influx, according to the documentary, has upset the delicate demography of state and if these are allowed to go unchecked, the indigenous lot would be alien in their own home.For the last couple of months, the organization led by noted lawyer Upamanyu Hazarika has been demanding immediate deportation of...
The brimful worries of north eastern region’s farming community seem to have struck UN attention when B Thomas from Liberation, a London-based human rights organization addressed the 34th session of UN Human Rights Council for the princely north eastern state on the issue of Right to Food in Geneva on Thursday.He said the enforcement of the Armed Forces Special Power Act 1958 has been affecting the farmers who keep producing food the feed the millions of the people in the state and abroad. But, he said, 97 farmers were killed during army’s counter insurgency operation against ULFA rebels under the draconian law.He said farmers were killed after ruthless torture and hectors of cropland were...
Geneva March 10: Food poisoning is now a global phenomenon. But India has reasons to be worried where the country has been witnessing a series of incidents at regular intervals. Foods in the country is far from being fresh and healthy where pesticides and chemical fertilizers are used to boost the production. These are more or less of what a representative from India said at the ongoing UN Human Rights Conference in Geneva on Thursday. In his speech, Pankaj Jyoti Hazarika, who represented Prahar, a non governmental organization said Assam is one of the state where these incidents have been hitting media headlines. “In the promotion of health and prevention of disease the role of...
Geneva, March 9: A lesser known tribe and their pathetic plights in the Indian sub continent knocked at the doors of the United Nations which is holding its 34th session of Human Rights Council in Geneva. The Fase Pardhi community is scattered in Maharashtra, Karnataka. In his speech at a side event "Women and Child RIghts" dalit rights activist Vishal Kamble precisely threw some lights on the sub human condition of the tribe who are still living outside the village areas without any access to education, healthcare and potable. According Kamble, the governments have no dearth of schemes. But all of these schemes' have failed to percolate any benefit for them. As a result, these...
The entire incident of bloodbath in Balajan, in fact, is shrouded in mystery. The ground situation seems to have suggested utter cluelessness. The picture is still hazy. The statement issued by NDFB-S has further made the state of affairs more confusing. Security forces smartly claimed to have killed one of the perpetrators minutes after he along with his fellow militants unleashed terror with firing and bombing in the weekly market. Then how his fellows have managed to vanished from the spot? Why an intensive combing operation has been failing to trace down the remaining perpetrators? These things need to be clear. Talking to a section of media, some eye witnesses maintained that police...
Who is behind the gory bloodbath in Balajan where 14 people died and several others sustained injury? Initially, the needle of suspicion pointed towards NDFB-S who out rightly rejected the claim. The inputs are now contradictory making the scene more confusing.Some circles tried to call it the handiwork of the fundamentalist forces. Some of them talked of a suicide squad attack. But dearth of concrete evidence makes it difficult to confirm it. Then who is behind the deadly attack?Police claimed to have killed one of the attackers minutes after the incident at a stone’s throw distance from the incident site. But how police killed the striker who managed to come to the market with arms and...
Assam is on the threshold of a massive agitation for exercising the rights over its own resources if somebody goes by the howls of startewide protest against the move to auction marginal oil fields.Many political parties and organizations are up in arms against the Narendra Modi Government at the Centre alleging a set of policies which is believed to have hurt the sentiment of the people who are proud of the state’s oil and tea.These agitating parties and organizations have not spared three month old BJP-led coalition government as they pledged massive agitation to stop the move.The massive agitation started erupting as soon as the Centre cleared the decks for auctioning a dozen of oil...
Only two words ‘secret killings’ struck no less storm across Assam 15 years back where the relatives and friends of a section of ULFA leaders went missing. The bodies were recovered later without any clue to follow the perpetrators. But strangely, protests refused to surface not to speak of police investigation. Even nobody from the government was with the bereaved family members. One after another such incidents kept Assam’s socio political scene on the boil during the erstwhile Mahanta regime. Congress, in 2001, was quick to make it a poll issue blaming it all on the AGP-led four party alliance government for it. The anger and resentment among the people helped Congress regain...
Add new comment