PATNA: Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has decided to highlight unnecessary harassment of Hindi-speaking people during the process of updating of National Register of Citizens (NRC) in Assam during its campaign for the ongoing assembly election.
Ill effects of the Citizenship Amendment Act-2019 (CAA) and the recent unprecedented rise in the prices of petroleum products especially diesel and cooking gas will also be highlighted in the poll campaign.
Lalu Prasad-led party is contesting the Hindi-Bhashi dominated Tinsukia seat in the first phase as part of seat-sharing among the eight allies of the Congress-led Grand Alliance and also hoping to get one more seat-Gauhati West- in the third phase. Assam goes to the polls in three phases on March 27, April 1 and 6.
In Tinsukia, its candidate Hira Devi is locked in a direct contest with BJP’s sitting MLA Sanjoy Kishan, who is also the Assam’s labour and tea tribe welfare minister. Kishan belongs to the tea tribe community while Hira Devi is from the Hindi speaking community, which has a strong base in Tinsukia assembly seat.
As the Tinsukia constituency is dominated by the Hindi-speaking community, different political parties, even in the past assembly polls, preferred to give tickets to Hindi-speaking candidates. Tinsukia constituency goes for polling in the first phase on March 27.
“How can we forget the harassment caused to the Hindi speaking people in Assam, especially in Tinsukia district, during the process of updating the NRC. Hundreds of Hindi speaking families were harassed. We are visiting the Hindi and Bhojpuri speaking families having roots in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and requesting them to recall how they were harassed in the name of NRC during the regime of the BJP-led government in Assam,” RJD’s Tinsukia unit president Mohan Sah, who has his roots in Bihar, told TOI over phone on Tuesday.
“Genuine Indian citizens should not be harassed in the name of unconstitutional ‘doubtful category’ of voters as part of the NRC. We will also oppose the CAA,” RJD’s Assam state president Shonarul Shah Mustafa told TOI over the phone on Tuesday.
Mustafa said the RJD also wants that the flood erosion problem of Assam should be declared as a ‘national problem’ and boundary issues of Assam should be solved immediately.
Besides these, RJD’s Tinsukia candidate Hira Devi has prepared a two-page ‘Sankalp Patra’ in which she has highlighted altogether 33 local issues related to Tinsukia constituency, Tinsukia district and the tea tribe community. She is going to the electors with her ‘Sankalp Patra’ and promising to work for fulfilment of the 33 issues, if the Congress-led alliance was voted to power in Assam.
Besides supporting the demand of establishment of a university in Tinsukia district and converting all schools of tea gardens into government schools, Hira Devi, in her Sankalp Patra, has also promised to raise the daily wage of tea garden workers to Rs 365 from existing Rs 165.