After a roadside altercation involving a Bengali-origin man turned violent in Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma directed that the name of the locality in which the incident took place be changed from Daccapatty, or Dhakapatty, to an “Assamese name”. The incident took place on Friday evening in Daccapatty, a commercial locality in central Assam’s Nagaon town. “The accused had parked his bike by the road and was talking on his phone. Another boy was on his two-wheeler behind him, and he pressed on his horn twice. The accused got angry, and it turned into an argument. The accused started beating him with his helmet,” said Nagaon SP Swapnaneel Deka. The accused was identified as Anis Rahman, and the assaulted man was identified as Tandeep Kakoty. SP Deka said that the accused was arrested on Friday. However, as a video of the assault got widely circulated, the identities of the two men involved caused outrage among some sections. On Saturday evening, when reporters asked Chief Minister Sarma, he said he was aware of the incident. “The police are taking action. I have also told the DC to quickly change the name of the place from Daccapatty to an Assamese name,” he said. According to an academic who has conducted extensive fieldwork in the locality, local history recounted by residents is that the area got its name in the colonial period when urban traders from Dhaka migrated to the town in the 19th and early 20th centuries, settled and set up businesses there. There is another significant Daccapatty in Jorhat. The local MLA from the BJP, Rupak Sarmah, welcomed the announcement and said, “Before Independence, there might have been some historical connection, but it is not there now. It has shops and businesses run by our Assamese people. There is no reason for it to be named after a city in Bangladesh that we have no connection with. That is why the Chief Minister has said that it should be changed, and we all appreciate it.”
