Here is a summary of JPC's 2-day Barak Valley Visit

The hype around JPC’s (Joint Parliamentary Committee’s) Barak Valley visit was sky high, in every nook and corner there was some discussion/debate about the committee’s Barak Visit. The committee was visiting to hear people/organisation and take their opinion/suggestions on the Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016(To know more about the bill and context of the visit read this, What is JPC why is everybody talking about it.

But there was some apprehension too, somewhere in the heart of the Bengali population of Barak Valley there were insecurities… is it only hype or will it be a hit too… will the Bengali population of the Valley have a substantiated representation… and many other, but, what happened on ground in the two days is historic and has done away with all of that.

Highlights of Day 1

• JPC heard representation from Karimganj, Hailakandi and Cachar.
• 70 organisations/individual from Karimganj submitted their point of view to the JPC
• 105 organisations/individual from Hailakandi submitted their point of view to the JPC
• 50 organisations/individual from Cachar submitted their point of view to the JPC
• Human-chain was formed in various parts of Silchar and especially in and around NIT campus
• Men, women, young, old… people were standing with placards, roadside in rain
• Politicians, influencers from Hailakandi and Karimganj were spotted in NIT premises

Take away: Hindu Bengalis of the valley did unite and in a very civilised manner communicated the mass mood to the JPC. Also, District Congress went against the National stance and the INC leaders spoke publicly in support of the bill.

Observation: While local newspapers covered the event in detail staying neutral, the Assamese news channels focussed more on how Barak Valley is completely against Bhramhaputra. The channels also raised concerned about dedicating one day to Bhramhaputra Valley and two to Barak. Assamese sentiment was in the heart of the entire coverage and the line of questioning too depicted the same.

Numerology: Out of the 225 submissions, around 218 supported the bill.  (This is an estimate from the team of our reporters who were on ground, the JPC did not disclose the for/against analysis)

Here are some pictures from day 1

Prev 1 of 14 Next

Highlights of Day 2

• The security was as heavy as day 1
• Around 110 people/organisations submitted their opinion/suggestion to JPC
• A group even mentioned about the renaming of Silchar station to Bhasha Sahid Station
• Human-chain was formed in various parts of the city and especially at NIT
• Many political leaders were spotted throughout the premises
• Members of JPC addressed the media
• JPC mentioned about another trip to Assam if necessary

Take away: A verbal battle between local leader Congress and BJP was witnessed. Rumours of people saying something and doing totally opposite was rife, INC’s Kamalaksha Dey Purkayastha name surfaced. While he was very  vocal in support of the bill, rumours doing rounds that he actually opposed it in his submission to JPC. The biggest take away from day 2 and the JPC’s three day Assam visit is that the report that JPC is supposed to submit on the basis of which the parliament will narrow to a decision, might get delayed.

Observation: There was a gossip flying in the air and that actually needs some contemplating and had made to social media too. It’s an allegation against the Modi government, which says, “If the government and BJP is so for the amendment why is this JPC travelling everywhere, the government could have take the ordinance route how it did during the land acquisition bill. This is a trick of BJP to divide Assam in communal lines.” This was posted on Facebook too, we are not revealing the identity due to security reasons.

Numerology: Out of 325 submissions in Barak Valley, about 310 were in favour of the bill. (This is an assessment done by our reporter and is not an official communique, the JPC did not reveal the statistics of for/against)

Notable comments:  

“Don’t really care much about religion or base year, want citizenship for the sufferers of partition” said Kamalaksha Dey Purkayastha. That’s a totally different stance from the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC)

Kabindra Purkayastha, BJP leader: Normally the JPC do not speak to any individual or organisation for more than a minute or two, but with us (BJP co-ordination committee) they spoke for 15 minutes. From the conversation what I could make is, the committee too want the bill to get passed, though they did not share anything as such with us this is my personal assessment. We hope that the bill which we support wholeheartedly gets passed and the citizenship regarding issues that we face, gets resolved forever.

Rajendra Agarwal, Chairman, JPC and BJP MP: Over the last two days about 315 individuals/organisations submitted their memoranda, the committee will look at each of them in details and then make a report. This is a long process and very difficult to set a deadline, we thought three days of hearing is enough for Assam but now we feel that we might need to visit Assam again to hear more people. The buzz around the bill is more in Assam as the state is unique in many ways, there is an issue of Assam Accord which is there only in Assam and then there is NRC proceedings so all of that makes Assam really critical for us.

Sushmita Dev, Member of JPC and Congress MP: We have heard all who came and submitted their memoranda, this will help us to come to a better conclusion. In Assam we have witnessed divided views, the JPC will consider both the views with equal weightage and then come to a decision on the implementation of the bill. I cannot disclose what happened inside. Also I would like to mention here, senior political figure and parliamentarian Kabindra Purkayastha challenged me to come in public with my personal stance, well I am a member of the JPC and being a member the protocols do not allow me to opine on a subject I am entrusted to report on. It is really unfortunate that a leader of his stature, comes in public and challenge me despite knowing the parliamentary rules.

Here are some pictures from day 2 of JPC's Barak Valley visit

Prev 1 of 11 Next