Teen girl’s assault sparks Assamese vs ‘outsiders’ row, ends in apology by Marwari groups

This resulted in a protest by 30 Assamese nationalist organisations, which began on Monday, resulting in shutters being pulled down on shops and businesses owned by “non-Assamese” residents.

Following the protests, state cabinet minister Ranoj Pegu, who is also the ‘Guardian Minister’ of Sivasagar district, presided over a meeting in the Upper Assam town on Tuesday. It was attended by representatives of Assamese nationalist groups as well as Marwari groups.

At the meeting, representatives from Marwari groups, both men and women, knelt in the presence of Pegu, representatives of the district administrations, the protesting organisations and the media to issue a “public apology” and offer paan-tamul (betel leaves and betel nuts), as had been demanded by the protesters.

According to members who attended the meeting, three key demands were raised by the Assamese nationalist organisations there – that a legislation be introduced to disallow the sale of land to “non-indigenous” people in the district; that all businesses owned by “non-Assamese” have the names of their establishments written in the Assamese script in “large letters” on their hoardings; and that “non-Assamese” businesses ensure that 90% of their employees are “indigenous” youths.

According to Vinod Aggarwal, one of the people who attended and “apologised” at the meeting, they accepted the terms of the groups.

“The issue has been resolved now. The Marwari community has condemned the incident and we have also promised to make efforts that no more such incidents will take place. After the incident took place, we should have gone to the family and communicated our grief, so we all came together for the event… We have accepted their demands. Most of the employees in the businesses are already Assamese,” he said.

He also said that they have agreed to provide Rs 2 lakh to the girl’s family.

Pegu told reporters after the meeting, “The groups spoke about the rights to land, employment and language of the indigenous, which this government is working towards under the leadership of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma… The communication gap and misunderstanding between the two groups has been solved.”

Sivasagar MLA Akhil Gogoi, who is the leader of the regional party Raijor Dol and part of the opposition alliance in the state, offered his “full support” to the protest, saying that “if Assamese people are not safe in Assam, where will they be safe?”

Citing a recent announcement by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, he said, “In the upcoming assembly session, which will begin on August 21, the Assam government has said it will bring a law to not allow the sale of indigenous land to others in Barpeta and Goalpara. The names of places like Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Golaghat, Sivasagar and Jorhat should also be added.”

The developments of the last few days have also involved the ULFA(I) issuing threats to “outsiders”. One of the faces of this protest is Srinkhal Chaliha, the leader of a radical Assamese nationalist group called the Veer Lachit Sena, which has been in the news in the past for confrontations with non-Assamese people working in the state.

On Sunday, Gaurav Somani, a BJP leader from Guwahati, filed a complaint against Chaliha in the Dispur police station, alleging that statements made by him in one of the meetings amounted to “spewing venom against the Marwari, Bhojpuri, Bengali and other communities residing in Assam”. Soon afterwards, a statement purportedly issued by ULFA (I) demanded that Somani withdraw the complaint, threatening “consequences” for “outsiders”. Somani went on to withdraw his complaint on Tuesday.