Letters to The EDITOR

Letters to The EDITOR

An Ominous Sign

A report published in the media suggests that many of the Foreigners Tribunals (FTs) set up in Assam to try the immigrants infiltrating into the State through the porous Bangladesh border have turned farcical as those tribunals have failed to serve the purpose for which they were constituted. It is further reported that the notices sent to the foreign nationals are handled very casually by the Jarikars, the village elders and the Village Protection Force personnel who simply hang the notices on trees or nearby light-posts. Such a state of affairs allows the foreign nationals to freely mingle with the local people.

To make matter worse, the neighbouring States dump on the Assam side of the border the illegal nationals caught in their States after deporting them. So, Assam alone has to bear the burden of all these foreign nationals. In the process, the indigenous populace is being reduced to a minority while the foreign nationals have become the vote banks of many political parties.

Politicians with myopic outlook contribute immensely for making a mess of the situation and thus doing an irreparable loss to Assam. World leaders say that migration is a global phenomenon. But Assam is a tiny State with limited resources. Can the indigenous people of the Assam withstand the multifaceted tentacles of the evil forces confronting them? The 2021 Census will unfold the truth.

Ashok Bordoloi,

Dibrugarh

Bharat Bandh

The word ‘Bharat’ preceding the word ‘bandh’ does tell one the enormity of the shutdown – no matter who the caller and what the reason behind such a call are. Assam, along with rest of India, witnessed such a bandh on September 10, 2018. The bandh was near total in Guwahati, if not elsewhere in the State. The reason – rise in prices – for which the bandh was called is one that sells the best amongst the masses who script success or failure of bandhs.

This writer happened to go Dispur for an urgent piece of work around 11 am when the bandh was near total at Barbari (Upper Hengrabari) in Guwahati. Most of the shops, barring two pharmacies, had their shutters down. From Barbari to Dispur there were no diesel taxis that usually ply at close intervals from Narengi-Ganeshguri and Patharquary-Ganeshguri. However, there were crowds of battery-operated rickshaws – manifold more than their usual number at Barbari Chowk. While going to Dispur, this writer heard a lady (a co-passenger) telling to someone else that she was returning from a bank at Barbari. She found the bank closed. On his way back around 1.30 pm, this writer found almost all the shops open at Barbari Chowk.

What this writer wants to drive home is: how come the shopkeepers who supported the bandh in the morning defied the bandh call in the afternoon? Such common incidents do tell us much about the public psyche. The message if crystal clear – shopkeepers keeping their shutters down in the morning is a compulsion. Whatever may be the cause, they cannot afford to incur loss in their businesses as they have many a hungry mouth to feed. Aren’t such bandhs violations of human rights? Surely, there are better ways to protest price rise and bring prices down.

Topo Singha

Milan Nagar, Barbari, Guwahati

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