Tiwa Jatiya Oikya Mancha to oppose Cong in council elections: Ex CEM

FROM A CORRESPONDENT

MORIGAON, March 22: Rama Kanta Deori, former Chief Executive Member (CEM) of the Tiwa Autonomous Council said that the Tiwa Jatiya Oikya Mancha would fight against the ruling Congress in the forthcoming Tiwa Autonomous Council poll to be held in the third week of May.

Addressing a special convention of the Tiwa Jatiya Oikya Mancha held at the Morigaon District Library auditorium here on Wednesday last Deori said that the mancha will in no way allow the Congress to come to the power.

He also slammed the State Government and its ministers for interfering in the affairs of the democratically-elected Tiwa Council during the last three years.

Referring to the definition of 'Assamese', Deori opposed the definition that all the Assamese speaking people are Assamese. He said that all indigenous tribal people of Assam may not speak Assamese, but they are the sons of the soil. A foreigner cannot be called an 'Assamese' simply because he/she knows Assamese, he added.

It may be mentioned that more than 1,000 delegates from different districts of Assam took part in the convention.

The open session of the convention was presided over by Dharma Sing Bordoloi, president, All Tiwa Students' Union (ATSU). Addressing the gathering, Tulshi Bordoloi, adviser, Autonomy Demand Struggling Forum said that the very existence of Tiwa ethnic group of Assam was threatened by the silent aggression of foreigners who illegally encroached the land in the tribal belts and blocks.

Bordoloi appealed to all indigenous tribes of Assam to fight against the policy of the State Government for which the indigenous tribal people had to lose their land rights.

Several student leaders of different indigenous communities like Bodo, Karbi and Koch Rajbongshi also took part in the convention.