With the death of nine more persons by ULFA militants, Assam continues to simmer under the anti-Bihari backlash. More the 43 people have been killed so far in the ongoing violence. How it all happened is immaterial. The little Biharis dotting Assam are marked places as the Bihari finds himself in the firing line. Blame game is doing rounds. Condemnations are pouring in a torrent. But solace? a distant mirage, as yet.

Part of the violence in Assam is retaliation to violent attacks on Assamese travelling by train through the Laloo land.   ULFA and NDDB share the rest of the credits. Of course, the Biharis too.

What really provided the spark for the attack on the Railway Recruitment Board office near Guwahati station remains a mystery wrapped in the Bihari mystique.  A group of Bihari youth had come to Assam, like candidates from other neighbouring states to take the Group D examination. The aspirants for this lowly paid railway job were said to be anywhere near to 4000. Certainly not all of them could have got the job even in the normal course. So an element of frustration was present amongst most candidates as they descended on the examination hall in Guwahati. It soon emerged out of the closet as tempers ran high. As many as 4,000 candidates had come from Bihar and other States to appear in the examination, and about 2,000 of them have already left the State as the Railway authorities have already announced that candidates unable to appear in the examination will be allowed to sit for it later outside Assam.

Expressing concern on the continuing violent incidents in the two states, the Prime Minister urged the states to take steps to ensure that peace and harmony are restored. The Prime Minister also spoke to Railway Minister Nitish Kumar. Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani expressed concern about the violence taking place in Assam and said he was in touch with the North-Eastern state’s Governor and Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.  “The Centre cannot remain a passive spectator to the situation and we’re keeping a watch on it,’’ observed Mr Advani. “It is the responsibility of every institution and respective states governments to control such ethnic clashes. Strict measures should be taken to control the same,’’ he added.

Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi criticised ULFA ‘c-in-c’ Paresh Baruah for issuing a ‘quit notice’ to Biharis in Assam. “Why is Baruah not in Assam now?” he asked, and said that retaliatory attacks were no solution to the crisis. He appealed to the people of the State not to disturb the communal harmony in the State, and said that the State Government was determined to maintain peace. He said that he had already asked the DCs to constitute peace committees to restore peace in their respective districts. Meanwhile, in a letter, Mr Gogoi urged Railway Minister Nitish Kumar to give priority to recruitment of local candidates in the Group D posts in the NF Railway. He also urged the Railway Minister to ensure security to Assamse train passengers. Assam Home Secretary Badal Mitra Mazumdar said that adequate security would be provided to the candidates going to appear in the Railway examination. Meanwhile, different political parties in the State condemned the attacks on Assamese train passengers in Bihar. AGP president Brindaban Goswami criticised the Railway Ministry and the Bihar Government for their failure to provide security to train passengers from Assam. He said that despite the AGP’s long-standing demand for 100 per cent jobs for local candidates in grade III and IV posts in the NF Railway, the Railway Ministry continued to ignore it.

The Assam NCP also staged a dharna in front of its office in protest against the assault on Assamese train passengers in Bihar. Meanwhile, the ABSU-BPAC condemned the attack on Assamese train passengers. ABSU president Rabiram Narzary is of the opinion that the move to debar candidates from outside Assam from appearing in the Railway Group D examination in Guwahati was a right step. Various organisations, leading citizens of Assam have condemned the attacks on train passengers from the North-East in Bihar. All Assam Lawyers’ Association has expressed serious concern and condemned the vandalism of some goons on the innocent Assamese passengers while they were travelling to different places of the nation by Brahmaputra Mail, Dadar Express, Trivandram Express, Kamrup Express and Mahananda Express. The association, in a fax message to Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani, demanded him to stop this type of uncalled for atrocities and anti-social activities of a section of Bihari people immediately before the matter takes serious turn. The association also appealed to the learned advocates of Bihar practising under Patna High Court, Bihar to intervene in this matter to pacify the situation.

Urging the Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar to revise the employment policy in NF Railway to recruit local Assamese youths with immediate effect, the association has also urged the people of the State to maintain peace and harmony. Neeva Konwar, vice president, All India Mahila Congress (I) Committee has strongly condemned the barbaric and heinous incident of gang rape of a girl student from Nagaland studying in Pune which took place on the Guwahati-Dadar Express train near Jamalpur Railway Station in Bihar on November 12. The organisation in a press release condemned the looting of passengers by armed hooligans of Bihar and inhuman activities by them to other students and women passengers who were subjected to humiliation.

In an appeal, she urged the authorities of both Assam and Bihar as well as the Railway authorities to nab the culprits immediately and see that such barbaric incidents don’t take place in near future. She also appealed to the people to maintain peace in the society. The State unit of Rastriya Janata Dal in an emergent meeting yesterday condemned the State Railway Recruitment Board Chairman J J Bora for the incident. The party also criticised Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and his party colleagues for the alleged nefarious role played by Dainik Jagaran for the current Assamese-Bihari conflict regarding the Railway recruitment examination. Meanwhile, the State unit of RJD has informed its national president Laloo Prasad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi about the incident and requested them to provide adequate security measures to Assamese people and railway passengers travelling through Bihar. The party also demanded a CBI inquiry regarding the recruitment in the NF Railway and an inquiry by the parliamentary committee to check the functioning of NF Railway.

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