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Meet advocates Assamese as mother tongue

By Correspondent

KALGACHIA, Feb 26 � Under the aegis of the greater Kalgachia Nagarik Manch, a public meet was held recently at the Kalgachia Bazar to discuss and find a solution to the controversy regarding writing of Assamese as mother tongue in the ongoing census that started nationwide from February 9.

In his speech, the president of the meeting, noted social activist Abdul Kader remarked that the forefathers of the religious minorities migrated to Assam from different districts of Purba Banga under the undivided India in search of better livelihood. Like other migrated castes and communities, they accepted Assamese as their mother tongue as the common language of integrity and harmony, discarding their own language and culture.

Now, if our people write Bangla instead of Assamese as mother tongue, the extreme regionalist organisations will have a chance to call those people newly migrated Bangladeshis.

Throwing light on the topic, ex-principal of Naba Jyoti College, Abdus Sattar Ahmed said that the controversy of mother tongue among the minority section is a grave issue and since the leaders and intellectuals of this community like Fakhruddin Ali Ahmed, Jananeta Ataur Rahman, Sayed Sadullah, Moinul Hoque Chaudhury etc advocated and accepted Assamese as mother tongue for our community, we should not create unnecessary controversy over it.

Criticising Jania MLA Abdul Khaleque for his recent comment where the MLA gave �Miah� as his mother tongue, the ex-principal said, �It is wrong on our part that we elected a man as our representative, who has a trifling mind to make such a silly remark on a serious issue�.

In his speech, ex MLA Abdur Rouf remarked, �the little love that we get from the indigenous people, as they termed themselves, is only because we have accepted Assamese language and culture by giving up our own�.

Among others, the meeting was also addressed by local CPM worker Shohidul Islam, AIUDF leader Hafiz Rafiqul Islam and Anwar Hussain and Congress worker and principal of Kalgachia Jatiya Vidyalaya Asir Uddin Talukdar.

In the beginning, the meeting�s objectives were explained by Abu Bakkar Siddique, senior lecturer of Naba Jyoti College, who also advocated Assamese as the mother tongue of the minority people of Assam.

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