Sonowal lauds people for maintaining peace post Mamata’s ‘inflammatory’ remarks

Guwahati (Assam) 4 August 2018

Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal hailed the restraint and patience shown by the people of the state, more particularly those from the Barak Valley, in view of West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “inflammatory” remarks and her decision of sending a delegation to Barak Valley with an “evil design to polarize the society in the aftermath of the complete draft publication of National Register of Citizens (NRC).

An official release said Sonowal thanked the people of Barak Valley for the exemplary composure that they exhibited without falling prey to the divisive design of the external forces.

“The Chief Minister also expressed his thanks to the Bengali-speaking people and different organizations scattered across the state for unequivocally registering their protests against West Bengal Chief Minister’s plan of polarizing the state. He also said that since the very beginning of updating the NRC, some vested interests were hell-bound in destabilizing the process by making remarks inimical to the age-old unity prevailing among the people of Barak, Brahmaputra, hills and plains. He however, said that in spite of all evil intensions, people of Assam showcased a remarkable composure and strengthened the friendship and camaraderie among themselves,” an official release said.

The CM also said: “Assam is a land known for its unity since ages. People belonging to different caste, community, creed and religion symbolize unity which is unique. Though several attempts were made to disturb this unity, people of Assam showed resilience and reinforced the state’s unity”.

He also said that the people of Assam are guided by the humanitarian and unifying philosophies of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika and Hemanga Biswas. Stating that Assam and Bengal share harmonious relations since ages, Sonowal said that scholar like Ashutosh Mukherjee helped introducing Assamese language in the University of Calcutta. Even Dr. Bhupen Hazarika during prime time of his career, spent his days at his Tollygunge residence in Kolkata and produced some of his immortal creations both in Assamese and Bengali. Even Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbarua strengthening the intrinsic relations married Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s grand-daughter Pragya Sundari. Therefore, being a Chief Minister of such a state which has its deep-rooted culture and traditions, Mamata Banerjee should not have made such baseless comments which have got communal undertone aimed at disturbing the strong relations between Assam and Bengal.