A correspondent
Silchar: The attempt to establish the supremacy of the Assamese language over the other languages by a section of the Assamese people in the past had led to the disintegration of the state, said the Minister Jayanta Mallabaruah. Addressing the closing ceremony of the weeklong “Bhasha Gaurab Saptaha” to mark the recognition of the Assamese and Bengali as “classical languages” by the Union government, the Guardian Minister of Cachar Jayanta Mallabaruah on Saturday night here in Silchar said the state of Assam had disintegrated to a number of smaller states only because a section of the Assamese society tried to impose the Asomiya language as a supreme over the other languages in the region. Even the mistakes by some Assamese people had led to enmity between the Assamese and the Bengalis in the state, he further admitted. Baruah said the Axom Sahitya Sabha was founded jointly by the Assamese and the Bengalis, and the apex body was used to represent all the languages spoken by various linguistic communities and tribes residing in Assam. But in due course, the Sahitya Sabha emerged as the platform of only the Assamese-speaking people, he said. “If our forefathers were a little bit liberal and accommodative, the relation between the Assamese and the Bengalis would not have soured,” the minister added.
Claiming that the Himanta Biswa Sarma government had been trying sincerely to bridge the gap between the Assamese and the Bengalis, Baruah said the decision of the Union government to accord the status of classical language to both Assamese and the Bengali would further act as a cementing factor. The Chief Minister was also trying for the overall development of all the languages spoken by various tribes and communities residing in Assam, the Minister maintained.
Dipayan Chakraborty, the Silchar MLA, also spoke on the occasion, which concluded with Bihu and Dhamail dance.
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