Organisations join hands to make BDF’s Barak Bandh on November 18 a success

On the Barak Democratic Front’s call for Barak Bandh, many groups and organizational heads sat down in a joint meeting today. The meeting held at Silchar Pensioner’s Bhawan saw supporters from the groups who joined for the bandh on November 18. The meeting held this evening was chaired by CPI’s senior leader Rafiq Ahmed.

The meeting started with the inaugural address of BDF Convenor Joydeep Bhattacharjee. Bhattacharjee highlighted the demands behind the strike on Friday. He said while the main objective of this proposed bandh is to protest the deprivation of Baral’s job seekers and the torture of non-tribals in Meghalaya, the demand also for an end to the unnecessary harassment of betel nut traders has also been included. He also mentioned that if the unnecessary police action is not stopped, all the products of these traders will be destroyed and it will cause a huge loss to all involved in this business which cannot be compensated in any way. To stop this attempt to destroy Barak’s rural economy, he demanded, everyone’s united protest is necessary immediately.

On behalf of the Assam Wage Workers Union, Arindam Deb expressed their full support for the proposed ban, saying that the type of administrative repression being used to crush any democratic movement these days is bad for democracy. He further proposed to include this issue also in the demand of bandh. Atanu Bhattacharjee, the President of the Indian National Congress’s city committee present at the meeting assured full cooperation from the party to make this November 18 strike a success. He said that the steps being taken by the present ruling party to stifle the freedom of speech are reprehensible. In his address on behalf of the Bangali Nabanirnam Committee, Ranju Das mentioned that Barak’s candidates for the recently held direct recruitment examinations in the Grade-III and Grade-IV positions have been deliberately deprived. He said his party has been involved in this issue before and will play an active role in making the proposed bandh on November 18 a success.

Amra Bangali Assam State Committee’s President Sadhan Purkayastha shed light on the long-standing discrimination against Barak. He said that during the 1961’s language movement, despite Congress being in the power Barak’s Congress MLAs rose up to defend the rights of the motherland, even if they had to resign. He said that fight has to be fought again and urged every party to join in the bandh called by BDF. Krishanu Bhattacharjee representing March for Science said that a vested interest has already been mobilized to thwart the bandh program. A newly created organization is trying to mislead the public. He urged everyone to be cautious in this regard and called on Barak’s job aspirants to make efforts to make this program successful for their own sake.

BDF’s Chief Convener Pradeep Datta Roy in the meeting said he is sure that the people of Barak will support the bandh program unconditionally. The meeting’s chairperson Rafiq Ahmed, extending his party’s support said that the ‘brain drain’ has been going on for a long time due to the lack of opportunities for the youths of Barak’ and they are gradually becoming incompetent.