GUWAHATI: Incidents like the recent killings at Tinsukia and the bomb blast prior to Durga Puja in Guwahati have raised issues about how safe the citizens of this state are. Questions have also been raised about the government’s ability to reduce conflicts in the state.
After the bomb blast near Sukreshwar Ghat in Guwahati which injured four, the United Liberation Front of Assam - Independent (ULFA –I) claimed responsibility for the blast and also said that they would, in future, continue the fight against the government.
Though the ULFA-I has denied ownership of the Tinsukia killings, a highly placed source in the police said, “It looks like the handiwork of ULFA-I. The presence of the banned outfit has increased in recent days and there are recruitments happening in some parts of Assam.”
The Army has launched a massive counter-insurgency operation along the Assam-Arunachal Pradesh border. The Assam Rifles is keeping vigil on the porous Indo-Myanmar border.
The Panbazar police have summoned ULFA Peace Talks leader Mrinal Hazarika, who had recently threatened Bengali organisations supporting the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 through some hardcore rhetoric.
Not only this, the state, on 23rd October, observed an overwhelming bandh - a total shutdown of the state in response to a call by 60 organisations protesting the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016, despite the government’s stern diktat and rhetorical muscle flexing to foil the same.
The Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is regarded as Bharatiya Janata Party’s move towards vote bank polarisation.
Leader of Opposition, Debabrata Saikia, talking to G Plus said, “It is 100% vote bank politics because of which Assam and the people are suffering.” He expressed that a proposition like the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 is nothing but vote bank politics by the BJP and it is tarnishing the image of Assam projecting it, albeit incorrectly, as a state that is not safe for Bengalis.
City-based social activist, Ajoy Dutta, talking to G Plus said, “The Tinsukia killings are not because of Assamese-Bengali conflict but there is some third front which is working against Assam and the Assamese people.”
Dutta said that even during the Congress rule people died and it is not only the BJP that is to be blamed. He further said, “It is true that the BJP leadership is weak as they do not know what they want.” He said that if the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 will not affect Assam at all, the BJP government should make it clear to the public. “The chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal, after the Tinsukia killings, said he will not sleep; then why he was sleeping all these days?” Dutta added.
{{PRx6ntEp8c4ucb9q4yvj}}
Similarly, some Bengali organisations also blamed the government for failing to protect the citizen of the state.
Spokesperson of All Assam Bengali Yuva Chatra Federation (AABYCF), Sudip Sharma, talking to G Plus said, “The BJP government has failed to protect the people of the state and are busy wooing the
national leadership.”
