Letters to The EDITOR

Stop Bandh-culture

For quite some-time past it has been experienced with bitterness that some organizations call Assam bandh, holding the people of the entire state to ransom. Again, it is also seen that on some pretexts or other which might be genuine, a group of people takes recourse to blockade of roads putting the commuters into great inconvenience. The State machinery remains a silent onlooker, except that some officials come and convince the people to withdraw their agitation. There are even provisions of laws to prevent the people from taking recourse to blockade or bandh. Perhaps Assam is the only state in India that witnessed myriad of bandhs since the time of Assam-Movement. Now the six ethnic tribes of Assam are now demanding ST status. They have been calling bandh frequently. Recently, members of Koch Raj Bonshi Unions resorted to rail-roko agitation and after some of them were beaten up black and blue by Paramilitary forces, the unions declared Assam-bandh on August 14 and August 15 (Independence Day). Another fact remains that in the rail-roko agitation a good number of paramilitary jawans too got injured after the agitators resorted to stone-pelting. The people of India already suffered from the unlawful and unjust methods adopted by the Gujjars in Rajasthan that resulted into the loss of hundreds of crores of rupees. It was when Gujjars disrupted Delhi-Mumbai and Jaypur-Agra rail route, hundreds of railway passengers along with their families had been left stranded in the intermediate stations under a scorching sun. The Kerela High Court had observed that bandhs amount to public nuisance and instructed the authorities concerned to stop forced shut-downs.

We appeal to the Government of India to accede to the demands of the ethnic groups by incorporating them into the ambit of reservation. At the same time, we can express our apprehension that a more volcanic situation is ahead, when the minorities and caste Hindus would move heaven and earth demanding that they too deserve to be inside the ambit of reservation.

May Heaven bless India to get rid of the vexed reservation policy!

Ashok Bordoloi,

Dibrugarh