Assam-Mizo standoff rocks House
The ongoing standoff on Assam-Mizoram border created an uproarious scene in the Assam assembly on Wednesday with ruling and opposition members engaged in heated exchanges over the boundary clash with Mizoram, forcing the speaker to adjourn the House for 40 minutes.
The entire opposition, comprising Congress, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), Bodoland People’s Front (BPF), CPI(M) and Independent
MLAs, rushed to the well of the House demanding a neutral probe either by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) or the National Investigation Agency (NIA) and showed placards with slogans like - give protection to the residents of border.
The speaker Biswajit Daimary tried to pacify the situation soon after the ruling BJP legislators also rushed to the Well of the House to counter the opposition. As the members of ruling BJP and opposition started pointing fingers at each other in pandemonium, the speaker adjourned the house for 40 minutes.
Problem started after Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha raised the issue as a point of order and pleaded that problems started with Mizoram from October 2020. “We had written a letter to the union government informing about the issue. Even after that, why did personnel of Assam Police die? Whose fault was this?” he said.
Replying to the point of order, parliamentary affairs minister Pijush
Hazarika said that Assam and Mizoram are not two different nations, but two neighbouring Indian states.
“We have to solve our problems through dialogue and the process has already started. But I would like to inform the House that 34 people have died during the Congress regime in inter-state clashes since 1974,” he said. Mr Hazarika’s reference provoked the opposition members who strongly opposed the statement of parliamentary affairs minister and triggered a heated debate between the ruling party and the opposition members.
Six Assam Police personnel and one civilian were killed and over 50 people, including the Cachar SP, were injured as the festering border dispute between the two states turned into a bloody conflict on July 26.
Meanwhile, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday said that his ministers Atul Bora and Ashok Singhal will visit Aizawl on Thursday with a message of peace from the people of the state.