"Sonowal government is anti-bengali, using Hajela to fulfil their aspiration of abolishing Bengalis from Assam," MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayashtha

Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, has been vocal about the issues pertaining to Barak Vallley. From the opposition’s chair in Assembly, he questioned government on the change of name of the Silchar Station, recognition of the language martyrs, flood reliefs among various others. Recently he has come out against the veteran ULFA and SULFA members’ verbal attack against the Bengali Community. 

In an exclusive  interaction with Barak Bulletin, the MLA says government is playing vote bank politics with the Bengali Voters. He is also of the opinion that the state government is patronising the likes of Mrinal Hazarika for their anti-bengali comments. Here is the edited excerpts

What made you voice your opinion at this stage?

The moment anyone from the Bengali community says something in Assam, legal action is taken against them (case against Tapodhir Bhattacharjee). Whereas we are seeing constant provocation from the senior members of surrendered ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam) like Mrinal Hazarika against the Bengali community, and yet no action is taken against them. Forget action, no one is even coming out to say such provocation is wrong and should be prohibited. Subodh Biswas was in jail for more than 15 months for allegedly provoking a communal conspiracy. Why are these ULFA and SULFA veterans not put behind bars? What kind of democracy is this and where are we living?

What is your point-of-view on the role of government in the whole thing?

Bengali, Boro and each and every community voted to get the current State government in power. Especially the Bengali community played a vital role in the 2016 Assembly elections. Today, I fail to understand for what reasons the Bengalis are getting harassed in this manner. It looks like Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal and others in the council are AASU based and they are functioning following the AASU mentality.

NRC continues to be a nightmare for many in the State, what do you have to say about Hajela?

I don’t think it is Hajela calling the shots. I feel the Government is using Hajela as a scapegoat and pulling all the strings from behind. They are doing everything the way they want and Hajela is just a medium; a public face to their action. The ministers try to give assurance to people and  then exactly opposite happens. Without government’s patronisation Hajela won’t do what he has been doing. Similarly, without government’s patronisation, Mrinal Hajarika and other ULFA members would not dare to use such language against the Bengali community.

ULFA’s provocation is loud and clear, how do you think this should be countered?

I think legal actions should be taken against those ULFA and SULFA members spreading venom. In fact, I want to ask, why no action has been taken yet. It is not one occasional speech, they have been speaking against the Bengali community and threatening of repeating past history repeatedly. This shows that the government is playing vote bank politics with the Bengali community in Assam, their end motive is to abolish the community from Assam.

Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha spoke in Bengali and this English version is based on our interpretation and not his exact words.