Assam Assembly election: Writers, intellectuals appeal to vote against BJP’s misrule

In the run-up to the Assembly elections, several writers, intellectuals, scholars and educationists have appealed to the people of Assam to vote for those parties ‘which concede to the conditions of better living’.

They issued a joint statement on Tuesday evening that implores the common people to ensure the victory of the Grand Alliance in the forthcoming Assam Assembly election.

The statement has been endorsed by Dr. Hiren Gohain, Nirupama Borgohain, Dr. Lakshmi Bandana Bora, Sudakshina Sarma, Harekrishna Deka, Kulada Kumar Bhattacharya, Apurba Sarma, Dr. Arupa Patangia Kalita, Dr. Apurba Kumar Baruah amongst others.

Here is the full statement:

This election is crucial for the people of Assam. People’s verdict in the election will decide the future of Assam for years to come. All of us strive for safety and a secure livelihood, particularly the younger generation.

For this, we need an atmosphere of social peace and harmony. We can only have this when there is individual freedom and a guarantee of livelihood in a society. But the people in power are against this. If they come to power again things will worsen in Assam. So in this election, we should vote for those parties and political forces which concede to the conditions of better living.

We appeal to people not to be lured by the ruling party. Wrong decisions on the part of the people will be very harmful and damaging for the future of Assam.  Poverty, joblessness and skyrocketing prices of essential commodities troubled and tormented people during this regime.

Now emptying the public exchequer with a debt of 80 thousand crores, they are showering money on people with the sole objective of garnering their votes in the elections. But it will be a grievous mistake if people forget the bad days of the past just for little money.

How can we forget all those recruitment scams and the syndicate Raj of the BJP? The BJP government at the centre has also ruined the economy of the country by introducing wrong economic policies such as demonetization and GST.

Unable to handle the economy of the country, they are now selling our national assets to the corporates at throw-away prices.  When the income of an ordinary Indian has dwindled the income of the corporates has doubled in this time.

Every day the prices of electricity, cooking gas, petrol and diesel are soaring high. We must not forget all this just for a few rupees.  Also must we not remember that this was the same government which brought the CAA? And fighting against the CAA, five youths have sacrificed their lives.

Again, the special committee report on offering constitutional safeguards is gathering dust.  Now they have introduced a new political narrative. All the time they are speaking about the threat of Moguls and Ajmal becoming the chief minister of Assam.

These are nothing but dirty tricks of diverting people’s attention from the burning issues and polarising the voters on communal lines for their electoral gains. In these circumstances, it was the demand of time that all political parties opposing the BJP should be united. Unfortunately, it has not been worked out till now. But a Grand Alliance of the main parties opposing the BJP has already been formed.

We are of the opinion that only these parties, despite their factional scramble, rivalries and confusions, have organisational bases to resist the BJP. Against the misrule of the BJP, we appeal to the common people to ensure the victory of the Grand Alliance in the coming election.

But for this, the people must obtain some promises from the Grand Alliance. These promises must include productive employment rather than creating beneficiaries, curbing price rise, revocation of the CAA and to safeguard the natural resources against the greed of the multinational companies.

Two more regional parties (AJP and Raijor Dal) opposing the BJP have taken part in the election. Even now we expect some understanding and give and take between the Grand Alliance and the alliance of these two regional parties.

We appeal to them that by splitting the anti-BJP votes they do not give the advantage to the BJP. Similarly, with a view to defeating the BJP candidates, we appeal to the common people to vote for the candidates of these regional parties in the constituencies where they have mass-based and organization strength, but the candidates fielded by the Grand Alliance have no clean image and are relatively weak.

We want that anti-BJP votes are not divided under any circumstances. In this scenario, we urge the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) and the Raijor Dal not to take any step that might lead to any accusation in the future that their action did help the BJP come back to power by splitting the anti-BJP votes.

Dr. Hiren Gohain, Nirupama Borgohain, Dr. Lakshmi Bandana Bora, Sudakshina Sarma, Harekrishna Deka, Kulada Kumar Bhattacharya, Apurba Sarma, Dr. Arupa Patangia Kalita, Dr. Apurba Kumar Baruah, Amrit Kumar Goldsmith, Dr. Abdul Mannan, Indibor Deori, Dr. Taufiq Ahmed Barlbora, Udayan Biswas, Loknath Goswami, Pradip Acharya, Paresh Malakar, Shantikam Hazarika, Prabhat Bora, Dr Abu Nasar Saied Ahmed, Dr Manorama Sarma, Dr Indranee Dutta, Puneswar Natha, Rajen Kalita, Dr Paramananda Majumder, Deben Tamuly