Brainstorming sessions amid observance of Martyr’s Day

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Feb 14: Rajbabu Smriti Mancha (RSM), Masughat, Silchar is going to hold the Martyr’s Day of Rajbabu Sinha with a three-day-long programme at Masughat on March 11, 12 and 13, 2017.  The programme will have cultural and other events as well.

In sync, the Sushil Samaj, Bishnupriya Manipuri community, is also going to hold its interactions with college teachers, lawyers and businessmen of the community in all the three days to pinpoint tangible problem or problems afflicting the community, and find their remedies in unison – even though the community has been divided into organizatiol lines.

This is a follow-up step being taken by the Sushil Samaj. It was on December 31, 2016 four conveners of the Sushil Samaj – Advocate Pradip Sinha, social activists Sandhya Banerjee, Sujit Sinha and Sanjib Sinha – convened a brainstorming discussion at Sri Sri Bhubaneswar Sadhuthakur Sebshram at Silchar. The deliberation had representatives from both the factions of the Nikhil Bishnupriya Manipuri Mahasabha (NBMM), Bishnupriya Manipuri Sahitya Sabha (BMSS), Bishnupriya Manipuri Ga Sangram Parishad (BMGSP), Bishnupriya Manipuri Yuba Parishad (BMYP), Guwahati, Kaliprasad Darshan and others. The discussion hinged on ‘all demands of the community should be raised from one platform’. Many of the participants were of the firm view that in the face of conflicts among the organizations, including some parallel ones, the topic of the discussion of the day is the need of the hour. However, there were also participants who squarely questioned the relevance of the topic.

After hot deliberations, the conveners were very closer to mobilize the required support to form a coordition committee of all the organizations for raising the demands of the community at the right forums in unison when such a proposal came from educationist Santa Babu Sinha, who was shared the bench with those from the Sushil Samaj. The proposal soon got support from Kaliprasad Darshan and educationist Dr. Prabhat Sinha, who was the resource person at the discussion. The proposed coordition committee, however, failed to materialize following stiff opposition from one of the factions of the Maha Sabha while the bench of the other faction of the NBMM was empty by that time.

The situation led Debodas Sinha, inspector of Vidya Bharati chain of schools, Assam, to appeal to the organizers and other participants to continue such talks separately with different stakeholders of the community like college teachers, lawyers, businessmen and others so as to mobilize support in favour of forming a coordition committee so as to move the government and other agencies on various demands of the community. The discussions set to be held from March 11, 2017 are follow-ups of the December 21, 2016 brainstorming discussion.

The issues discussed mainly at the session were inclusion of the Bishnupriya Manipuri community in the Central list of OBC and the issue of definition of the indigenous people of Assam. Anda Sinha from Guwahati raised the issue of the alleged conversion of Bishnupriya Manipuri language teachers as general ones. While the former issue was widely discussion, the latter one raised from Kaliprasad Darshan was nearly played down. Barring Sadhan Sinha, who was seen sharing his bench with Sushil Samaj, no other speaker was heard discuss the issue. Kaliprasad Darshan, however, made an effort to make the gathering realize the importance of the issue in the current socio-political situation in Assam, but to no avail as the gathering started fraying at the edges by that time.

Among others, those strongly participated in the discussion were an NBMM team led by central committee leader Swapan Sinha; Jitendra, Shibendra Sinha and others from the other faction of the NBMM; Manikanta Sinha from the BMSS; Samir Sinha from the BMGSP; Debabrata Sinha, Pradip Sinha and others from the BMYP, Guwahati; writer Masi Sinha; Dr. Mas Sinha and Premanda Saraswati.           

Earlier in the day, Rajbabu Smriti Mancha felicitated former BMSS president Manikanta Sinha of Bhakatpur, Binod Sinha of Bhakatpur now staying in Guwahati and Brajagopal Sinha of Tripura for their respective contributions to the community.