Hindu Bengalis no threat to Assamese culture: Dey

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHAT, Sept 29: Former minister Ardhendu Dey in a different avatar! At the vintage point as the president of Assam garik Mancha he has got a bird’s-eye view of the vexed issue of Bangladeshi Hindus in Assam, and said: “A section of failed intellectuals and jourlists has painted a gloomy picture of the issue”.

Talking to newsmen in the city today, Dey said: “After the issuance of the notification by the Centre regularizing the stay of Bangladeshi and Pakistan minorities in India, some indigenous organizations and political parties of Assam have been shaky. They see Bangladeshi Hindus as a threat to the Assamese culture and literature. The Hindu Bangladeshis can never be a threat to the Assamese culture and literature. The statewide hue and cry on this issue is due to the gloomy picture of it painted by some failed intellectuals and jourlists in the State.”

Dey said: “The State intellectuals should see whose population has been rising fast in Assam. The AIUDF has been playing a cunning politics, very slowly but certainly. If the population of Assam is allowed to swell as it does now, the demography will let AIUDF leader Siraj Uddin Ajmal’s prediction that ‘Badruddin Ajmal will be Assam Chief Minister soon’ into a reality. The Hindu Bengalis are not helped by any party, not even the BJP.”

Dey said: “Of late a farmers’ leader has been very vocal on the issue of Bangladeshi Hindus. He should let the people of Assam know facts like  how many people of Assam have got land pattas following his policies.”

Coming down heavily on former Chief Minister and senior AGP leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta, Dey said: “The recent notification issued by the Centre in English and Hindu is all Greek to Mahanta who has rushed to the President of India against the notification.”

Dey said that there had been Bengali medium schools in Upper Assam. “But now, Bengali students go to Assamese medium schools. How come Bangali Hindus be a threat to Assamese literature and culture?” he said, and added: “The Barak Valley is considered as a cancerous area for Assam. If the Barak Valley too gets detached from fast shrinking Assam, what the State will be left with. The day is not far when people will have to look at Assam with the help of a microscope.”

Mancha’s working president Niladhar Roy said: “The notification issued by the BJP is just a lollipop. It has allowed Bangladeshi Hindus to stay in India, not to be Indian citizens.”