Assam: Despite Gauhati HC order, no respite from bandhs

23 July 2018:

The Gauhati High Court in 2010 had passed an order, in respect of Assam and Meghalaya, banning bandhs. While bandhs have become a thing of the past in Meghalaya after the government in the hill state started going hard at those calling bandhs, people have not got any respite from bandhs in Assam.

Normal life had come to a grinding halt across Assam on Monday during a 12-hour bandh called by six organisations demanding scheduled tribe (ST) status for six communities. The worst sufferers were bus, train and flight passengers. Hundreds of them were stranded in Guwahati.

After hearing two separate PILs, filed in Assam and Meghalaya, the Gauhati HC in 2010 had passed an order banning bandhs. It had directed the two state governments to strictly implement the law laid down by the Supreme Court in an earlier judgment by taking all necessary measures to thwart the infringement of fundamental rights of citizens due to calls of bandhs.

Following the HC judgement, the Meghalaya government started going very hard at those calling bandhs. As a result, bandhs are no longer called in the state. Given the phenomenon in Meghalaya, many wonder as to why the Assam government has not been able to prevent bandhs. They feel the government should be harsh on those calling bandhs. However, the organisations in the state categorically say that it is only through bandhs that they can draw the attention of the government, be it in the state or at the centre, to some burning issues.

“The issues should have been solved politically. Had the government done so, things would not have reached the stage of bandh,” All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) general secretary Lurin Jyoti Gogoi told InsideNe in reference to Monday’s bandh. He also said that “people have the democratic right to call a bandh”.