Defacing govt hoarding: Youths of ABYSO in Cachar Police net

Silchar, Oct 20: The controversy over the alleged defacing of a government hoarding of Jal Jeevan Mission with texts in the Assamese language at the Silchar Railway Station has taken a new turn.

Cachar Police has arrested two persons in the case. Superintendent of Police Ramandeep Kaur informed on Wednesday that two persons have been arrested on charges of destructing Government property and further investigation in the case is in progress.

Sources informed that the two youths belong to the All Bengali Youth and Students Organisation, (ABYSO) Assam. Rathindra Das, general secretary of the organisation had denied their involvement in the act of defacing the Government hoarding and said " we were called by the leaders of Barak Democratic Front and its youth wing to join the protest against putting up of the hoarding in the Assamese language at the Silchar railway station which is a place of reverence for all of us in Barak Valley as 11 martyrs laid down their lives for the cause of safeguarding the Bengali language in 1961. We had joined to protest and came back. We are in no way linked with the act of smearing the hoarding and we do not support such an act. However, we are now moving to get bail for the two members of the organisation."

Earlier on Tuesday, the SP had said that based on the FIR filed by the Cachar District Administration, they are investigating the case of defacing of the hoarding. "Based on the FIR alleging that the departmental hoarding was defaced, we are still investigating the case," the SP said.

Sources also informed that leaders of the Barak Democratic Front, (BDF), the parent wing of the youth body were also interrogated by police in the case.

It may be mentioned that while the Cachar District Administration lodged an FIR against Barak Democratic Youth Front (BDYF) on Monday for allegedly defacing the hoarding of Jal Jeevan Mission with the texts used in the hoarding in the Assamese language at the Silchar Railway station, the BDYF, on Tuesday filed an FIR against the Chairperson of the Jal Jeevan Mission Cachar Assam alleging that the said advertisement in the Assamese language installed in Barak Valley has violated Section 5 of The Assam Official Language (Amendment) Act, 1961. The BDF has however claimed that the protest at the Silchar railway station was in no way against Assamese or any other language rather it was against the intent of imposition of a language here in Barak Valley.

Interestingly, veteran lawyer and chief convener of BDF Pradip Dutta Roy, in a press statement, said that the BDYF had no intention of smearing the poster of Jal Jeevan Mission rather it is a controversy to strike discord among the Assamese and Bengali speaking people in Assam. "The alleged act of smearing the hoarding was not a part of the activity of BDYF. However, an FIR was lodged against the Chairperson of Jal Jeevan Mission in Cachar district for alleged violation of Section 5 The Assam Official Language (Amendment) Act, 1961 which mentions the use of Bengali language in all the administrative works in the three districts of Barak Valley," Dutta Roy said in the press statement.

Meanwhile, the issue has triggered reactions from various parts of Assam. Silchar MP Dr Rajdeep Roy took to social media to condemn the incidents and wrote on his Facebook page, "Ironical that the language issue has cropped up only days after HCM #HimantaBiswaSarma spoke in Bengali at #BimolangshuRoyFoundation programme at Banga Bhawan on 19th Sept 2021 and spent the whole 'Saptami' of #DurgaPuja with the 'Bengalis' of #barakvalley!Is this plain coincidence or is there a malicious intent behind it? Smells fishy !"

Silchar MLA Dipayan Chakraborty too reacted to the issue and told the media, " When the whole of Barak Valley was protesting against the atrocities on the Hindus in Bangladesh during Durga Puja this year, these men of the BDF were nowhere to be seen. But, as I see it, with such an act, they are now intending to strike a discord and divert the ongoing spree of protests against Bangladesh. I condemn the developments."