FT members asked to explain communal rider on donation

Show-cause noticeissued on April 30, told to reply by May 8

The Assam government has asked 14 members posted or attached to six Foreigners’ Tribunals (FT) to explain why disciplinary action should not be taken against them for putting a communal rider to their donation for the State’s COVID-19 relief fund.

A show-cause notice was issued on April 30 to these FT members with May 8 as the deadline for replying. The State’s Political (B) Department had issued the notice. B is the section of the Department that deals with the appointment of the FT members.

Kamalesh Kumar Gupta, an FT member of western Assam’s Baksa district, had in an April 7 letter to Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma listed the donations by 13 members, including his own, to the Assam Arogya Nidhi for combating the pandemic. The letter carried a specific request: the money donated should not be used for those who were infected at the event in Delhi’s Nizamudddin in March.

The show-cause by the Department’s Deputy Secretary N.D. Patowary cited an FIR by the All Assam Minority Students’ Union on April 11 against Mr. Gupta’s “communal” letter.

“Objection has been raised to a line in the said letter. Such an act is unbecoming of a responsible FT mMember, since it may lead to communal harmony,” the notice said.

MP Abdul Khaleque had written to the Chief Minister seeking the termination of Mr. Gupta as his “reprehensible” mindset “disqualifies him as the guardian of our Constitution”.