A CORRESPONDENT
DOOMDOOMA: The Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba-Chatra Parishad (AJYCP), Tinsukia District Committee organized an offbeat felicitation programme at Margherita College on Sunday by honouring 34 leading persons posthumously and 47 living persons belonging to Tinsukia district for their accomplishments in different walks of life.
The felicitation meeting, which was conducted jointly by Dr Debajit Singha, Principal, Margherita College and Hiteswar Deori, adviser, AJYCP, was attended by eminent writer Dr Rita Chaudhury as chief guest while Rana Pratap Baruah and Palash Changmai, president and secretary respectively of AJYCP, graced the occasion as appointed speakers. In her address, Dr Rita Chaudhury, who was also once an active member of AJYCP, said that the Assamese society had a composite identity and in the current situation it was knowledge which acted as the torch-bearer for advancing the civilization. "But for that we must uphold our tradition and respect our traditional values," she said.
Saying that AJYCP's programme bore testimony to that, she said that unity and harmony existed between different communities in her home town Margherita during the time she grew up there as a child. "But it was the British imperialist forces that adopted a policy of divide and rule in order to exploit our natural resources. Now in the age of globalization some small ethnic groups are offering resistance to the path of progress and development," she said.
On the other hand, AJYCP president Rana Pratap Baruah said that the demands like Inner Line Permit (ILP), self-autonomy and dual citizenship raised by AJYCP, which was formed on March 12, 1978, were still valid and the controversial Citizenship (Amendment) Act would not have been able to do much harm to the State had those demands been conceded to by the different governments that were in power. AJYCP's firebrand secretary Palash Changmai said that the present government's policy of 'One nation, one nationality' was not applicable to a Sate like Assam.
"Of late, the State has experienced a cultural aggression from north India. The present day writers must be courageous enough to pen these things in an impartial and courageous manner. Otherwise no development was possible," he said.
The programme began with a chorus beautifully rendered by the women's team lead by famous musician Nayanjyoti Deka of Doomdooma. Thereafter, Surajit Moran, president of AJYCP, Tinsukia District Committee explained the objectives of the meeting and welcomed the guests.