More than a decade back in November 2007, the picture of mob striping an Adivasi girl on the street in Guwahati hit the headlines in almost all the media. That picture of street horror resurfaces again in social media now. But with a different caption that shows how political squabbling has taken an ugly turn these days in social media.
The location of the incident has been changed from Assam to Bengal in the Facebook post uploaded by one Hindu Akhilesh Gupta and shared by many. Unfortunately, Hindu Akhilesh Gupta has used Late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s photograph as his profile picture.
‘Bengal mein Congress karyakartao ne Hindu mohila ko daura daura kar pita…..mohila ki galti bas itni thi ki Congress rally mein BJP aur Modi jindabad kah diya……..share karke Congress ka chehra duniya ke samne laiye,’ the Facebook post says.
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The literal meaning of the post is —- ‘In Bengal the Congress office bearers are chasing a Hindu woman and beating her. Her only fault was that she shouted slogans in favour of BJP and Modi in a Congress rally. Please share this and bring the true colour of the Congress before the world.’
But actually, it was a photograph taken on December 24, 2007 at Guwahati. On that day, All Adivasi Students’ Association, Assam (AASAA) held a rally at Dakhingaon in Guwahati demanding inclusion of Santal Adivasis and the tea tribes in the list of Scheduled Tribes (ST). Members of the Adivasi student body suddenly sneaked out of the venue and started marching towards Dispur. On their way, they started pelting stones at the shops on the street that resulted in the violent clash between them and local residents of Guwahati.
The said photograph doing the rounds in social media has nothing to do with any Congress rally in Bengal or any other place. Rather, the shameful incident took place on Beltola-Survey road in Guwahati. The young Adivasi girl Laxmi Orang had to run for her life on the street naked when she was stripped by some rioters. While Laxmi was running on the street to save her life and dignity, some of the leering youths captured her photograph on their cameras.