A Poem Heavily Laden With Provocation!

A Poem Heavily Laden With Provocation!

GUWAHATI: A section is relentlessly trying to provoke the Miyas living in sars and saporis in Assam against the Assamese. The intention was quite glaring in the ‘Challo Paltai’ campaign that was aimed at making Miyas to write Bengali as their mother tongue in the 2021 Census. ‘Miya Poetry’ came in quick succession, heavily laden with provocation, purportedly against the Assamese. The situation in the State, it seems, is fraught with a flare-up as the poem, in no uncertain term, has sent a clear-cut message by asking a question – ‘How long will we remain silent?’ This is a glaring example of damage which the misuse of the social media can do in this age of media boom.

The content of ‘Miya Poetry’ is highly provocative, targeting the Assamese. It paints a grim picture of Assam and its centuries-old civilization and value system. The content of the poetry says ‘Write I am a Miya’. It refers to the NRC, the IM(DT) Act, the Nellie massacre and depicts a picture before the rest of the world that the Miyas have been meted out with ‘injustice’ in Assam. A highly provocative stave given voice by a few persons (as its English sub titles read on the screen) of the video clip of the poem written in the Miya dialect reads ‘My mother is a D-voter though her parents are Indians/the land that makes my father an alien, that kills my brother with blades, my sister with gang rapes/ your torture has burnt my body black’.

Already a number of FIRs have been lodged in various police stations in the State against the intention of the poem.

While AASU (All Assam Students’ Union) general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said that the ‘Miya Poetry’ has painted a grim picture of Assam before the rest of the world, noted advocate Nekibur Zaman said that there is nothing new in the move. According to him, such activities have always been there in Assam over the years under a sleeping cell of fundamentalists. He, however, rued the fact that no action has been taken against such activities even after he fed the authorities with information.

Talking to The Sentinel, Lurinjyoti Gogoi said: “This poem speaks of a hidden agenda targeting the NRC and our language. This is an intentional provocation to a section of people. They’re out to fan the fire for a communal flare-up as they don’t want NRC publication in the State. We’ve nothing to do with poems written in the Miya dialect. However, the intention of this particular poem isn’t holy.”

The AASU leader further said: “We appeal to the people residing in sar-saporis not to get caught in traps laid by a section of unscrupulous lot. Since we’ve to stay in Assam together, better we shouldn’t pollute the social atmosphere in the State.”

Talking to The Sentinel, Nekibur Zaman said: “A section of people under the sleeper cell of fundamentalists has been active in the State over the years. I’ve informed higher-ups in the police, SB and Army Intelligence of such a development two years back. However, I’m in the dark as to what action has been taken to foil the cell. This campaign is being carried out by a select few. During the NRC pilot project in Barpeta they created a situation leading to police firing and killings. The immediate outcome was that the then government stopped the NRC update exercise.”

Meanwhile, one of the complainants says in his FIR, “The intention of Miya Poetry is to depict the Assamese people as xenophobic in the eyes of the world, which is a serious threat to the Assamese people as well as towards the national security and harmonious social atmosphere.”

Dispur police says that the matter is being investigated even as no arrest has been made so far.

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