Guwahati, Oct 20 (PTI) Two persons have been arrested for allegedly smearing a state government hoarding written in Assamese with black ink in Silchar town in the Barak valley an area predominated by Bengali speakers, a senior police officer said on Wednesday.
Cachar Superintendent of Police Ramandeep Kaur said two persons identified as Raju Deb and Samar Das were summoned to the police station for interrogation in connection with their involvement in allegedly defacing the hoarding of Jal Jeevan Mission on Sunday demanding the use of Bengali language in place of Assamese.
The duo were arrested on Tuesday evening and charged with damaging government property, the SP said.
Further investigations are on, she added.
Raju Deb is the Cachar District president of All Bengali Students Youth Organisation (ABSYO) and Samar Das is an active member of ABSYO.
Visuals showed some people climbing a ladder and defacing the hoarding which was in Assamese language in front of Silchar Railway station. They also wrote ‘Bangla Likhun’ (write in Bengali) and the names of two organisations below it.
Using the divide and rule’ policy of the British, the Congress, Left parties and fundamentalist groups have been trying to bring a divide between Assamese and Bengali speakers for years now, BJP spokespersons Ramkrishna Ghosh and Ranjib Kumar Sharma claimed in a joint statement in Guwahati on Tuesday.
The party spokespersons alleged that a third force’ wants to disrupt the peace and harmony prevailing in the state, but their attempts have been thwarted by quick action of the administration and sensible reaction of the public.
Assam has been home to different languages, like Karbi, Mising and Bodo, for ages and Assamese has been the unifying language for all the people. Likewise, Assamese and Bengali languages have complimented each other in their growth over the centuries, the BJP spokespersons said.