Deserted Assam to welcome Indian Premier

" The outfit even termed Dr Singh as liar because he has shown as a resident of Guwahati, the prime city of Assam. It argues that Dr Singh hails from Punjab State in north India and shows a rented house in Guwahati to contest for Rajya Sabha polls from Assam."

by Nava Thakuria

(April 02, Assam, Sri Lanka Guardian) Indian Premier is expected to witness a deserted Assam when he makes a visit to the Northeastern State on April 2. Just two days before Assam election, the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh is scheduled to visit the State for campaigning. Dr Singh, a senior Congress leader and representative of Assam in upper house of Indian Parliament (Rajya Sabha) is expected to attend a number of election campaigning meeting on Saturday for the benefit of his party candidates.

But a call for Assam Bandh (shutdown or total non-cooperation) by the banned United Liberation Front of Assam and the high voltage India-Sri Lanka cricket match can make the State deserted for the whole day. The armed outfit has called for the programme to show their resentment to the Indian prime minister ahead of first phase poll on April 4 for the 126 Assam Legislative Assembly.

In fact, the ULFA called for a 12-hour Assam bandh on March 28, the day Dr Singh initially planned to visit the State. Suddenly Dr Singh’s visit was postponed. The outfit too immediately withdrew the bandh call.

Mentionable that, the ULFA is fighting the Union Indian government for a separate country for all round benefit of Asomiya people since 1979. In the course of time, many ULFA leaders have surrendered and some of them get engaged with peace talks with New Delhi. But there are still ULFA cadre and loyalists under the leadership of the outfit’s military chief Paresh Barua who are waging a war against the government.

In the recent e-mail statement issued by Arunadoi Dahatiya, publicity secretary of ULFA, the militant group argued that Dr Singh had made enough useless promises to the people of Assam. The last one was the promise made by the Prime Minister ‘to discuss all core issues for political solution of Assam-India conflict’ that was not materialized.

The outfit even termed Dr Singh as liar because he has shown as a resident of Guwahati, the prime city of Assam. It argues that Dr Singh hails from Punjab State in north India and shows a rented house in Guwahati to contest for Rajya Sabha polls from Assam. His permanent residence has been show in government document as House No 3989, Nandan Nagar, Sarumotoria, Dispur, Guwahati, Assam-781006.

All these arrangements were made by the then Assam chief minister Hiteswar Saikia in 1991 to facilitate Dr Singh to reach the Indian Parliament as a Congress nominee. Since then the economist turned politician remains a Rajya Sabha member from Assam and incidentally he becomes the prime minister instead of Indian Congress chief Sonia Gandhi.

“The Congress not only divided the indigenous communities of Assam but also turned the State into a grazing ground for foreigners (illegal migrants from Bangladesh). We want the birthrights of indigenous people must be restored,” said the statement.

"We want to make it clear that the people of Assam will never be fooled by false promises made by the Congress party any more,” asserted in the statement.

But the cricket loving people of Assam find it pleasing as they would be able to enjoy the World Cup Cricket final match between India and Sri Lanka on April 2 in Mumbai in television. The cricket fans had already enjoyed an exciting semi-final match between India and Pakistan on March 30 last.