85% in detention camps are Hindu Bengalis, this is what BJP has given to Assam says Pradyut Bordoloi

With the upcoming Assam Assembly elections in mind, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee has organized a mass rally across the state to build public opinion against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Since Dholai is the only assembly constituency in the entire Cachar district, the first event was held there. Speaking at the event on Thursday were Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) President Ripun Bora, Nagaon MP and Assam Pradesh Congress Vice-President Pradyut Bordoloi, former Silchar MP and All India Mahila Congress (AIMC) Chairperson Sushmita Dev, and a few others. All of them have accused the BJP government of discrimination.

Sushmita Dev said, “BJP’s Mission 100 Plus actually means hiking the price of every essential item above ₹100.” Ripun Bora said, “BJP never wants the citizenship issue to get solved because if it is kept alive, it is easy to instil fear in the minds of the people, which helps them in their election campaign.” According to Pradyut Bordoloi, “The BJP wants to make Hindu Bengalis living in Assam as second class citizens.” After a long time, there was excitement and gathering seen in a Congress fucntion. However, the APCC is still discreet about which constituencies in the valley Congress will field candidates and the identities of those candidates as well.

In his speech, Ripun Bora said, “For decades, the Bengali people in Assam have had to carry the Bangladeshi label unwillingly and unnecessarily. Especially, the Bengalis belonging from the Brahmaputra Valley have been repeatedly humiliated. To mitigate such an issue, a process like the NRC was needed, which was initiated by the former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. If NRC was executed properly, no one with their name in it could have been labelled Bangladeshi. However, when the BJP came to power, it abused the NRC process for the sake of their politics. It has been used to intimidate innocent people, and people have joined the verification process by selling everything they possess. The people of Barak have been called up to several remote areas of Assam, including Kokrajhar, for verification. They went accordingly and presented their complete information and documentation. Now the BJP is saying that they don’t accept it, that is, they want to keep the problem burning so that it will be easier to intimidate innocent people to vote. They shut down the Congress era projects and launched similar projects in their own name and deceived the people. By shutting down the paper mills, there’s a conspiracy hatching to sell those public sector industries off to the corporates. We have joined hands with some parties for the upcoming elections who oppose the BJP’s misgovernance. The enemy of our enemy is our friend, hence when we return to the government we will forgive the agricultural debt, forgive the various debts of the women, and most importantly reduce the price hike.”

Nagaon MP and APCC Vice-President Pradyut Bordoloi said, “The BJP has a big plan to make the Bengalis as second class citizens. They are not fully abiding by the Assam Accord, but are only talking about the points through which the rights of Bengalis can be curtailed. In the Assam Accord, the base year of citizenship is 1971, BJP wants to change that to 1951. In the past, AASU too wanted to base the year as 1951, which was strongly opposed by Congress leader Santosh Mohan Dev, so former PM Indira Gandhi did not agree to that. Despite disrespecting the Assam Accord, the current BJP government is trying to take away all the rights of the Bengalis by using Clause 6 as an excuse. As an example of their plan, six detention camps have been set up in the state during the BJP rule. The number of D voters has increased exponentially since then. We went to those six detention camps and looked at the list and found out that 85% of the detainees were Hindu Bengalis. Of course, they were arrested after 2016. So far, 56 doubtful Indian citizens, who are Hindu Bengalis, have lost their lives. Some committed suicide, some fell sick due to lack of treatment or some died of heart failure due to panic. The current government is responsible for all those deaths. But more importantly, the BJP’s attitude towards Bengali Hindus is clear through these actions. They have repeatedly accused Congress of being anti-Bengali, we want to correct a little, the most Bengali discrimination happened in the state during the regime of the AGP government, which is now an ally of the BJP. And now the BJP itself has taken the initiative to uproot the rights of Bengalis.”

Pradyut Bordoloi thinks that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is running Syndicate Raj under the garb of co-ordination. He said, “It was nice to hear the message of Barak-Brahmaputra reconciliation from Sarbananda Sonowal at first, even though coming from a Congress politician like me. It seemed like they were thinking of something different. But gradually I realized that he actually wanted co-ordination of all kinds of syndicates in the two valleys, and that was made possible. Starting from coal, the Chief Minister is running a syndicate to smuggle coal, betel nuts, eggs, fish, and even cattle. And people like Kaushik Rai from Barak are helping him. Sometimes I wonder, what else is left in the syndicate?  Sarbananda Sonowal, at his own convenience, sends corrupt police officers to his favourite places, including the Barak Valley, and they also help the Chief Minister’s syndicate to flourish.”

At the event, Sushmita Dev too criticized Minister Parimal Suklabaidya. She said, “The miscreants from Mizoram have taken over a large part of the region under Parimal Suklabaidya’s constituency, the only minister from the Barak Valley. And he could do nothing but be a silent spectator. I can stand here and cite many such failures. They’re repeatedly chanting that their goal this year is 100 plus. And this is where the people are getting fooled again, the BJP’s 100 plus slogan means raising the price of essentials above ₹100. Whether it is petrol, milk or spices, the price must be 100+, which only benefits the corporates. With the elections coming up in a few months, I want to tell the voters, that now is the time to decide what your future holds. The situation could be unimaginable in the next five years if you vote for the wrong person.”

In the same event were also present former Minister Rockybul Hussain, Congress leader from Bihar Shakil Ahmed Khan, Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, Cachar District Congress Committee President Pradip Kumar Dey and many others who also expressed their views.