The Bajrang Dal is not associated in any way with the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday while responding in the state legislative assembly to an adjournment motion on arms training during a Bajrang Dal camp in the state earlier this year. Monday was the first day of the autumn session of the Assam State Legislative Assembly, which is also the first session to be held in the newly inaugurated legislative assembly building. Stating that Opposition MLAs would stage a walkout if their adjournment motions would not be accepted, and that he did not want the first session in the building to begin with a walkout, Sarma had requested Speaker Biswajit Daimary to accept all adjournment motions. Apart from the adjournment motion on the arms training by the Bajrang Dal, Speaker Daimary also accepted adjournment motions on power supply issues in the state and on the risks to river embankments. Following a video in July of showing young men receiving arms training in a school in Assam’s Mangaldai town, the Assam police had registered an FIR against organisers from the Bajrang Dal under sections pertaining to promoting enmity between different groups and common intention. Speaking on the adjournment motion, AIUDF MLA Aminul Islam said it was not possible for such an event to take place without the knowledge of the local administration. Pointing to a similar programme in Assam’s Dhubri, which had also come to light last year, he stated: “We don’t want to politicise this but we are bringing it before the assembly because the kind of environment one organisation is trying to create across the state, the government should tell the assembly that we will never let this happen again.” Live: Attending Autumn Session of Assam Legislative Assembly, Dispur — Himanta Biswa Sarma (@himantabiswa) September 11, 2023 Responding to this, Sarma said that the police have registered an FIR and the accused will be chargesheeted, but stated as a “clarification” that the RSS and the BJP “do not have even a distant connection with the Rashtriya Bajrang Dal”. “And if you want to see a little ahead, the VHP and Bajrang Dal, both these organisations are two parallel organisations which do various work of their own. Our BJP is not a part of that, and neither is the RSS by any distance,” he said. He also referred to the Mangaldai incident as “one example”, stating that there are lots of “examples “on the other side”. “There is one thing that the time at which this training was being taken, in different parts of Assam… one particular religion – or through the abuse of one particular religion – the kind of Al Qaeda network which has come up across the state is worrying. We have caught five modules of Al Qaeda in the Indian subcontinent and four Bangladeshi citizens of theirs are still free. Therefore, with all these matters, the incident that happened in Mangaldai town, what some people did – as far as I know, there were no firearms. On top of that, the police took swift action… But I have been in the house for a long time now. This is one example. But on the other side, there are lots of examples,” he said, adding that religious discord from either side has to be addressed by all parties.
