“CM spoke half truth,” Bhasha Shahid Smaran Samiti; “Calling Martyrs Bangladeshi a direct attack on integrity”

Silchar Railway Station — or rather, the long-awaited “Bhasha Shahid Station” is again at the heart of a political discourse. This happens each time the election knocks at the door. The latest campaign to distort history comes with the shocking labelling of the 11 martyrs of May 19, 1961, as “Bangladeshis” — a country that did not even exist when they were slain defending their mother tongue, Bengali, in Assam and especially then Cachar. Now, a fringe group led by someone with no connection to the valley is demanding that the station be renamed after Veer Sambhudhan Phonglo, a revered Dimasa freedom fighter who, notably, has no direct link to the station where those 11 laid down their lives.

Adding fuel to this controversy, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma once again shifted responsibility to the Centre, claiming the NOC is pending their approval — a statement the Bhasha Shahid Station Smaran Samiti has called a “half-truth.”

Rajib Kar, general secretary of the Bhasha Shahid Station Shahid Smaran Samiti, has accused the Chief Minister of Assam of telling a “half-truth” about the renaming of Silchar Railway Station and urged the state government to immediately issue the long-pending Gazette notification to formally rename the station “Bhasha Shahid Station, Silchar.”

In a detailed letter issued on October 26, Kar recalled that the Assam government under then Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi sent its approval to the Centre on February 10, 2016 (Ref. No. PLA 463/2008/432). He said the Samiti’s three representatives — Rajib Kar, Rajdeep Roy and Dipayan Chakraborty (the latter two not then MPs or MLAs) — travelled to Delhi to press the case with central authorities. “We met senior officials in North Block, explained the historical and emotional importance of the issue and requested the Government of India to grant approval to this long-standing public demand,” the letter states.

Kar said the Union Home Ministry, then under Rajnath Singh, subsequently issued a No Objection Certificate on November 7, 2016 (Ref. 44/72016-M&G/1496), stating it had “no objection to change the name of ‘Silchar Railway Station’ to ‘Bhasha Shahid Station, Silchar’ and directing the Assam government to publish the new spelling in Devanagari, Roman and the regional language via Gazette notification and to send copies to the Survey of India, the Ministry of Railways and other concerned departments. A copy of that letter was also sent to the Samiti, Kar said.

“Thus, there were two NOCs in 2016 — one initiated by the Tarun Gogoi government and the other from the Union Home Ministry — and the only formal step remaining was for the state government to issue the Gazette notification,” Kar wrote. He added that this notification has been “pending for eight years.”

Kar accused the Chief Minister of referring only to the Tarun Gogoi government’s approval when asked about the renaming during his visit to Silchar on October 24, 2025, thereby “conveniently hiding” the central government’s 2016 approval. “What remains undone is the Gazette notification — the only step the state was required to take,” the letter says.

The Samiti also criticised a development in the file relating to the renaming: a counter-claim filed on July 9, 2018, by “a small group of Dimasa individuals,” which Kar described as “allegedly motivated by bad faith” and an attempt to create needless controversy. He said the Cachar administration and police have communicated in writing to the Assam government that the counter-demand lacks validity.

Kar further addressed claims that the station should be named after Veer Sambhudhan Phonglo, noting that the Dimasa people already honour Phonglo with a full-sized statue at a rotary near Haflong market and that “his life and struggle bear no connection whatsoever to any railway station.” He argued there is therefore “no question” of naming Silchar station after him.

The letter also condemned recent social-media posts by Mukteswar Kemprai, which Kar said on October 25, 2025, attacked the language martyrs and “called our beloved language martyrs ‘Bangladeshis’,” remarks Kar labelled “utterly condemnable.” The Samiti reiterated its belief that Silchar Railway Station should be named to honour the Bengali language martyrs whose sacrifice in 1961 sanctified the station.

Calling on elected representatives, Kar urged local MLAs, ministers and MPs to ensure that the Gazette notification for renaming “Silchar Railway Station” as “Bhasha Shahid Station, Silchar” is issued before the next election is announced, saying: “That will be the true way to honour the self-respect and identity of the people of Barak Valley.”

But will our elected representatives speak up — or will they choose silence, fearing that raising their voices might rock the boat and cost them their party tickets for the 2026 Assembly polls?