Akhil Gogoi Graffiti at Jamia Millia Attains Cult Status among Students

New Delhi, January 22, 2019:

If one visits the road outside the main campus of the Jamia Millia University, one will come across a graffiti of the Assam RTI activist, Akhil Gogoi, currently incarcerated for alleged crimes under the country.

The graffiti that was made by the students of the University has already attained iconic status among the student fraternity opposing the BJP imposed trident of CAA-NRC-NPR across the nation.

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The image of Gogoi wagging his finger has attained an almost cult-like status among the students across the nation and clamours for his release have risen while the nation continues to rage over the Government's move to enact the Citizenship (Amendment) Act that has been panned for its "discriminatory" nature as it excludes Muslims from its purview.

Gogoi, who has been seen protesting 'injustice' on the streets of the country wearing chappals, with a hand-woven a bag slung over his shoulders, has come to symbolize the "everyman", and perhaps infuses the commoner with hope that the common man can make the policy makers in the high corridors of power shake in their boots by mobilizing the masses.

Does Gogoi have influence? If the Government's stifling of his voice amid the snowballing protests against the CAA is any indication, he sure is!

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Revealing the lure of Gogoi as a symbol of the fight against oppression on college campuses, a JNU P.HD scholar, under condition of anonymity, told Inside Northeast, "Assam's peasant leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi's arrest under the draconian UAPA (Amended) by the NIA reeks of an age old tactic used by governments insecure about dissent."

The scholar has further stated that the timing and charges pertaining to Gogoi's arrest are not only dubious; they are sinister.

"Before his arrest, Gogoi could be seen making public speeches appealing to the people of Assam to take a peaceful path to oppose the CAB (now CAA) and to refrain from violence. His call resonated with the masses, and he was immediately arrested from Jorhat on December 11th for prima facie causing violence through his organisation KMSS but also for sedition and having Maoist links. The larger picture around Gogoi shows us that his attack on the corrupt nexus operating in the state disguised as development continues to rattle the corridors of power. And his history of arrests shows that this is not limited to the BJP government alone", the scholar further adds.

Thus, the demand of the unconditional release of Akhil Gogoi, alongside the release of other political detainees and prisoners in Assam, remains a foremost demand by the student groups staging anti-CAA protests both in Assam and outside the state (particularly by students from Assam and the Northeast).

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