"Out of 19 lakh NRC rejects 11 lakh are Hindus, yet Barak Valley's BJP MPs are silent": AABHA, Goirikh Bharat

More associations join the disappointed-at-NRC brigade. BJP’s state president Ranjit Dass, Finance, PWD and Health Minister, Himanta Biswa Sarma, veteran BJP leader, and former union minister Kabindra Purkayastha and many other individuals and associations have already shared their disappointment on the supplementary draft of NRC which got published on August 31, 2019.

In front of Khudiram Bose’s statue in Park Road Silchar, hundreds gathered earlier today to protest against the published NRC draft. All Assam Hindu Bengali Association (AABHA), Goirikh Bharat and many other associations took part in the protest march.

The associations in unison claimed that out of the 19 lakh NRC rejects 11 lakh are Hindus and yet the newly elected BJP MPs in Barak Valley are quite maintaining silence. AABHA president, Basudev Sharma took a jibe at both Rajdeep Roy and Kripanath Mallah. He said, “Several BJP leaders from Bramhaputra Valley including Himanta Biswa Sarma voiced their concerns. People of Barak Valley voted BJP candidates to victory as they promised that they will stand by the Hindus in Assam. Now we feel like betrayed by them and that is why we are demanding their resignation.”

As per Sharma’s analysis, out of the 19-lakh-NRC-rejects, six lakh are Muslims, “Half of the number of Hindu rejects, whereas the purpose of NRC was to identify the illegal Muslim immigrants and that showed how Pratik Hajela and NRC failed to live up to its promise,” Sharma added.

Renowned journalist and a poet, former editor of Dainik Jugashanka, Atin Das too criticised the BJP MPs for their silence. “During the Modi 2.0 campaign, we often heard people saying that the Modi-Shah election machinery is so strong that even if a banana tree contests from BJP it would win that Lok Sabha seat. The way our MPs are behaving now it teaches us a lesson for life, no matter whatever we do we must not vote banana trees to victory,” said Das.

Das turned a few pages of the history book and said, “Jawaharlal Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and others conspired against the Bengalis and eliminated Netaji Subash Chandra Bose to break our spine. We have remained spineless since then…”

Other spokespeople of various organisations also addressed the gathering and all of them urged, MPs and MLAs of Barak Valley to speak up.