A look at yesterday's rally: Barak Valley united and strong, ready for all

Yesterday, Silchar witnessed a moment which it did not in a very long time. The city saw men without legs standing, and the ones without voice shouting. If politics gets the worst out of people, yesterday, Silchar proved that people get the best out of people. The polarised political scenario is the mood of the nation. Not often, you would see people belonging to different religion agreeing on anything in India but things were a little different yesterday. Thousands gathered together rising above religious and ideological biases to send across the message of strength that lies in unity.

Since the time the NRC proceedings began in Assam, the Bengali community has been portrayed as a threat to the tradition and culture of Assam. Things escalated after the Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) looking into ‘The Citizenship Amendment Bill 2016’ visited Assam. Brahmaputra Valley opposed the amendment (which opens a door for persecuted Hindus, Sikh, Parsi, Jain and other minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan). Barak Valley, on the other hand, supported the amendment in every possible manner and requested the committee to re-look clauses of Assam Accord which Rajiv Gandhi government signed in 1985. One such clause that Barak Valley wanted JPC and the government to re-look at is the one that summarises all those foreigners, who had entered Assam between 1951 and 1961, were to be given full citizenship, including the right to vote; those who had done so after 1971 were to be deported; the entrants between 1961 and 1971 were to be denied voting rights for ten years but would enjoy all other rights of citizenship is what the Assam Movement leaders and government of India had decided on.

But it was not the accord that got the people to gather on the roads of Silchar 23 years after it was signed. It was the manner in which Assamese media and the intellectuals of Brahmaputra Valley reacted to a piece that a former vice-chancellor of a central university wrote for a leading regional daily. Not only the media exasperation, professor Tapodhir Bhattacharjee, well known for his literary work and academia will now be summoned by the court as a Guwahati based activist named Manas Chalhia lodged a complaint against the former vice-chancellor, and a case has been registered against him under, IPC 120 (B) and 153 (A). That is what got the thousands to hit the road. The speeches were as straight as an arrow, there was no mincing of words or diplomacy. The right to express or freedom of expression is a fundamental right of all Indians and Tapodhir Bhattacharjee is as Indian as a Sarbananda Sonowal or Himanta Biswa Sarma or for that matter Narendra Modi.

See pictures from the march

“Assamese media in its criticism forgot that the Bengalis are very much part of Assam. Their jibe at Tapodhir Bhattacharjee is a jibe at all the residents of Barak Valley. Enough! Now it is time for us to rise above the Hindu-Muslim biases and unite. They intentionally divide us in the name of religion to weaken us, to soften us, so that we lose grounds beneath our feet, but now is the time hold your ground,” said one of the political leaders in speech. A family member of Tapodhir Bhattacharjee said the family was traumatised by the trolls but seeing the sea of support has given them a new rise of hope.

This could be the new beginning in Barak Valley. One that might unite more than divide, one that might prepare the people for July 30, 2018 publication of the final draft of NRC. This gathering could also save other hundred somethings from the torture in the detention camp.

“The premise of this beginning comes as Bengalis are not a threat to anybody anywhere and particularly in Assam, the community is not against Assamese in Assam or any other community anywhere else. But no one should come hunting for Bengalis in Assam and if they do there is a united front waiting,” said the political leader.

There is a quote that says, “Revolution is as unpredictable as an earthquake and as beautiful as spring. Its coming is always a surprise, but its nature should not be,” it is certain that the turnout yesterday had taken a lot of the Bengali bashing intellectuals of Brahmaputra by surprise. And as far as the case against Tapodhir Bhattacharjee is concerned there is another quote that is apt in such a scenario, “You can jail a revolutionary, but you cannot jail the revolution.” Yesterday’s turnout made it clear that there will be many more articles written and published and every time a 103-year-old ailing Chandradhar is thrown in detention camps, they would certainly make headlines.