Guwahati: The North East Students’ Organization (NESO) has decided to defy the Assam government’s recent appeal against holding of rallies and processions and said that it would go ahead with its scheduled rally against illegal influx Sep 6.
On Saturday, the Assam government had appealed that processions, rallies and protest marches, which have the potential to aggravate tension and disturb the social fabric, should not be undertaken for a period of one month.
“It is shocking that the government had appealed to the people not to organise protest marches and rallies. We feel it to be an infringement upon the democratic rights of people,” said NESO adviser Samujjal Bhattacharyya.
The NESO had earlier called for a dawn-to-dusk bandh of all the northeastern states Sep 6 to protest against the attack on students and workers of northeastern states and their subsequent exodus in some cities in the country.
NESO had excluded Assam from the purview of the bandh as they would hold a massive rally in Assam’s main city Guwahati the same day to protest against the issue.
The organization had also invited all the members of the Northeast MPs Forum and representatives of all the state governments in the northeastern states to make their stand clear on the issue of illegal influx from Bangladeshi infiltration.
NESO had also invited the state governments of Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Maharastra to send their representatives to the public rally so that they can clarify their stands on the issue of attack and subsequent exodus of northeastern people from their states.
“The government’s apprehension that rallies and protests would aggravate the situation is baseless,” said a senior NESO leader, while adding that the government’s appeal is a tactics to suppress the voice of the people in the state.
“All the indigenous people of the seven states have united against the illegal influx. Our scheduled rally is not aimed at disrupting the peace but strengthening the age-old bond between the people of the state and the region as a whole,” he said, adding that they would organise the rally in Guwahati as planned Sep 6. (IANS)