When AJP President Lurin spent Bihu camping with Mising protesters in Tinsukia

TINSUKIA: People of Assam usually spend the festival of Bihu with their close ones and family members. Breaking away from this tradition, Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) leader Lurin Jyoti Gogoi spent the first day of the folk festival (January 14) with villagers of the flood prone Laika-Dodhiya villages in Upper Assam who are currently camping near the Deputy Commissioner's office in Tinsukia seeking rehabilitation from the Government. The AJP President later said that the AJP party has extended its support to the villagers who have been protesting for over 20 years demanding their rights.

"So many have passed away already and attained martyrdom. Therefore, the AJP is extending its full support to these families in their bid to be rehabilitated," Lurin stated.

"The Government", Gogoi said, "has introduced laws to grant citizenship to the illegal foreigners, but the rights of the Laika-Dadhiya villagers have been overlooked. This is a violation of their human rights.

"If the Government can give land to (Baba) Ramdev, Dabur, Emami, ITC, why can they not rehabilitate the villagers of the Laika-Dadhiya villagers?", the AJP President said.

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Terming the BJP-led Government as the saviour of foreigners", Gogoi said that the Sonowal Government's inability to resolve the issue proves that the Government has eyes only for the concerns of the rich.

The AJP President spent the night raising slogans with the Laika-Dadhiya villagers, and spent the night at the camp. "Gogoi even ate his food there and slept at the camp that night as a mark of expressing his solidarity," Jagadish Bhuyan, General Secretary of the AJP, told Inside Northeast.

Around 3,000 men, women, children, most of them belonging to the state’s Mising tribe – have been camping in Tinsukia town since December 21.

Meanwhile, Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal has asked for the rehabilitation process to be completed by January 31.

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