Guwahati: An RSS worker in Guwahati has planned to stage a 335-hour hunger strike from Sunday (August 16) in protest against Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s remarks about ULFA(I) chief Paresh Baruah, accusing the Chief Minister of glorifying the leader of a banned insurgent group.
RSS worker Hiteswar Chakravorty will begin his hunger strike at 11 am on Sunday and continue until 10 am on August 30 at Dispur, opposite the Assam Secretariat in Guwahati.
Chakravorty said the protest was in response to remarks made publicly by Chief Minister Sarma on July 10 in connection with Paresh Baruah. According to Chakravorty, the Chief Minister had described Baruah as a “revolutionary” and called for a portrait or mural of the ULFA(I) leader to be drawn.
Sarma’s remarks have become a point of contention because of Baruah’s long association with the armed ULFA insurgency and the organisation’s history of violence in Assam.
Reacting to the Chief Minister’s remarks, Chakravorty questioned the appropriateness of describing Paresh Baruah as a “revolutionary”, particularly in view of the killings of RSS leaders and workers allegedly carried out by ULFA militants.
“Is calling Paresh Baruah a revolutionary justified?” Chakravorty asked, arguing that Chief Minister Sarma’s remarks were particularly unfortunate given his repeated references to Hindutva and the RSS.
Chakravorty recalled the killing of RSS leader Pramod Narayan Dixit, who was allegedly gunned down by the proscribed ULFA at Barpeta Road on August 16, 1991. He also referred to the killing of another RSS leader, Sukleswar Medhi, who was allegedly shot dead by ULFA militants on August 30, 2005, while he was on his way to school in Nalbari, where he worked as a teacher.
According to Chakravorty, several other senior RSS leaders and workers were also killed by ULFA militants during the insurgency.
“It is unfortunate that the Chief Minister, who talks about Hindutva and the RSS, can appeal to draw a mural of ULFA chief Paresh Baruah,” Chakravorty said, describing the Chief Minister’s remarks as “shameful and unfortunate.”
He said the timing of the proposed hunger strike was deliberate, with the protest beginning on August 16, the anniversary of Pramod Narayan Dixit’s killing, and ending on August 30, the anniversary of Sukleswar Medhi’s death.
“I will stage the hunger strike from the day when Pramod ji was killed till the day when Sukleswar Medhi was killed on August 30,” he said.
Chakravorty has demanded that Chief Minister Sarma apologise for his remarks concerning Paresh Baruah. He said that if the Chief Minister refuses to apologise, Sarma should resign from office.
He has also demanded the arrest of Paresh Baruah under the National Security Act (NSA).
He also questioned how a Chief Minister of a state could call for a mural depicting the leader of a banned rebel outfit. Drawing a comparison with the arrest of a young woman for allegedly writing poems in support of the ULFA, Chakravorty asked why the Chief Minister should not face action for publicly appealing for an image of the leader of a banned armed group to be drawn.
Chakravorty said the protest was intended to draw attention to what he described as a contradiction between the Chief Minister’s public support for the RSS and his remarks about the ULFA(I) chief.