Guwahati: The Assam State Committee of Students’ Federation of India (SFI) on Friday said that the state police and administration ‘doesn’t want the presence’ of Jawaharlal Nehru University Students’ Union (JNUSU) president Aishe Ghosh and all-India SFI general secretary Mayukh Biswas in Assam.
Both Ghosh and Biswas were scheduled to address two anti-Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) meetings in Guwahati and Hailakandi on March 18 and 19 respectively. Besides CAA, the two students leaders were also scheduled to speak on the public education system in Assam.
Members of the state SFI committee told media it was quite unfortunate that state police is not willing to allow the entry of both Ghosh and Biswas in the state.
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The refusal from the police comes some days after when far-right Hindu fringe groups stepped up their angst on social media platforms against the scheduled visit. Groups like the Bajrang Dal and Durga Bahini also issued warnings on social media that ‘under no circumstances’ will they allow Ghosh and Biswas to visit Assam.
When it was publicised on local dailies and on social media platforms that two students leaders will be visiting Assam to address anti-CAA public meetings, members from both Bajrang Dal and Durga Bahini wrote applications addressing the chief minister, the Deputy Inspector General of Police (southern range, Silchar) and the superintendent of police, Karimganj, asking that ‘Ghosh [be prevented] from entering any place in Barak Valley for maintenance of peace and tranquillity in the valley’.
In one such application, one Biswajit Banik who identifies himself as a member of the Bajrang Dal of Sribhumi Zilla in Barak valley said, “She (Ghosh) is coming in the valley to carry out the certain hidden mission to excite and incite the common people against the central government and the state government on the issue of anti-CAA violent agitation in the valley.”
Banik also requested the administration that she not be allowed to enter the valley by air, railway or road.
The Silchar Zilla unit of the Bajrang Dal in a letter dated March 7 to the deputy commissioner of Cachar district said, “Ghosh is the prime accused of a criminal case under Delhi Police due to her direct involvement in the anti-CAA movement, anti-national sloganeering and which culminated in violence inside JNU students’ hostel.”
The letter also mentions that she is “anti-Hindu, anti-national and an outlaw in the country.”
Kashyap Choudhury and Nirangkush Nath, SFI members of the state committee told The Wire, “We went to meet senior police officials on March 13. We were told that if we want to continue with the scheduled meeting, we can, but Ghosh and Biswas must not be present in Guwahati and in Hailakandi.”
“The senior officials also used the word ‘outsider’ in an informal manner. This is quite unfortunate. But we will not be deterred by the forces which have been given leverage by the BJP-RSS nexus. We will see what happens. We have taken it as a challenge. Democratic values have eroded in India and Assam,” they added.