GUWAHATI, Jan 17 - Senior journalist DN Chakravartty criticized the mindless extension of the duration of the Magh Bihu and Rongali Bihu to an unlimited time. Chakravartty in a statement today said that Assamese people who were in intellectual and moral slumber from 1770 suffered dismal degradation during Moamoriya mutiny and were finally subjected to virtual ruination during the three time Burmese invasion mainly because of their own fault.
�It was the great fortune of the Assamese people that great people like Anandaram Dhekiyal Phukan, Hem Chandra Barua, Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbaroa and a half a dozen great Assamese thinkers and writers salvage the Assamese society from virtual ruination. Assamese people displayed signs of resurgence during the decades from 1888 to 1958, but due to the absence of intellectual, social and moral leadership, Assamese people once again plunged into intellectual lathery, economic privation, social misdirection and literary impoverishment,� he stated.
He said the way some people were now wasting creative energy by indulging in purposeless festivities, lengthening the duration of Magh Bihu from seven days to three-four weeks and Bohag Bihu from a fortnight to three months and thus importing a host of other festivals both national as well as foreign, it appears that Assamese people have less time for strenuous study and hard labour. The way these people are wasting time in festivities, a time will come when Assamese will be dragged back as the world�s most backward community.
