A students’ organisation has advocated statehood for southern Assam’s Barak Valley because of a “sharp division” between linguistic groups created by the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016 .
Barak Valley comprising three districts – Cachar, Hailakandi and Karimganj – is Bengali-dominated.
“Organisations such as All Assam Students’ Union (AASU), Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti and the pro-talks United Liberation Front of Asom are making lives of Bengalis hell over the Citizenship Bill and NRC. It would be better if Barak Valley breaks away from Assam,” Pradip Dutta Roy, advocate and founder-president of All Cachar Karimganj Hailakandi Students’ Association, said in southern Assam’s Silchar on Tuesday.
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He also said that Assam beyond Barak Valley should be divided into three parts — Bodoland, NC Hills-Karbi Anglong and Kamatapur — to ensure peace.
“We don’t want to hurt the Assamese people. They can live in peace all alone,” Mr Dutta Roy said, lamenting that Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal’s dream of unity between the Barak and Brahmaputra valleys “will remain a dream”.
Reacting to the push for Barak Valley’s statehood, AASU general secretary Lurinjyoti Gogoi said a few people have been driven by a divisive agenda to derail the NRC process and create differences between the Assamese and Bengali people.
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“Neither the NRC nor the Citizenship Bill is against the Bengali people. We have a cut-off date (March 24, 1971 as per the Assam Accord of 1985) for deciding who’s a foreigner and it is not based on language or religion or anything else,” he told The Hindu .
“Our opposition to the Citizenship Bill is the bid to grant citizenship to Hindu Bangladeshis. And there are several communities other than Bengali among the Hindus from Bangladesh,” Mr Gogoi said.