Defacing Govt. poster in Assamese at Silchar Railway Station: Cachar District Administration lodges FIR

Cachar District Administration has lodged an FIR against certain groups and individuals for defacing a Jal Jeevan Mission advertisement at Silchar Railway Station. The advertisement has been defaced as it contains only Assamese language. The Barak Democratic Front’s youth wing defaced the hoardings stating “It is an insult to the Bengali Language Martyrs who laid their lives to secure Bengali as official language of Barak Valley.”

Superintendent of Police of Cachar, Ramandeep Kaur confirmed this in a media interaction. “We have received an FIR application from Jal Jeevan Mission of DC office, they mentioned names of few groups and complained that their departmental posters were defaced in the city. We have accepted the FIR and will carry on investigation,” Cachar SP said.

Yesterday, activists of local civil rights groups staged a protest at the Silchar Railway station premise against the installation of government posters that display Assamese Language. The protestors also blackened the poster with ink and urged others to do the same if they find any government poster displaying Assamese Language. Protestors argued that according to the Assam Official Language (Amendment) Act of 1961, the Assam government made provisions for using Bengali as the administrative language and other official purposes within the district of Cachar. In a video statement, the protesters had alleged that they had brought the violation of this act time and again to the authority, but no action was initiated. They also mentioned that Silchar station is the place where 11 Bengalis were martyred while defending their mother tongue, so continuous installation of Assamese posters was considered to be offensive for the Bengali sentiment.

The strong statement of the protestors in Silchar also stirred up reactions from the Bramhaputra Valley.  As, the leader of Bir Lachit Sena, Shrinkhal Chaliya also issued an ultimatum of 48 hours to the state government for arresting those who destroyed the Assamese posters in Silchar. “Think how they are putting black ink over the Assamese Language on a poster, think of how they will treat our culture,” said Chaliya in a video statement.

Earlier today, Rishikesh De, convener of the protesting organization clarified that their protest was not against Assamese or any language, in particular, they were only protesting the forceful imposition of a particular language.

Barak Bulletin reached out to the president of Barak Democratic Forum for an official statement and reaction but he refused to make any statement as of now.