URBAN NAXALS IN ASSAM IS THE COCKTAIL OF ACTIVISM AND TERRORISM. GAUHATI HIGH COURT HAS UNMASKED THIS COCKTAIL

Most people who follow politics closely in India ever since PM Modi got elected are well aware of the words like 'Urban naxal,' which was popularized by the filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri. For the first time, people got a second opinion on the design of Naxalism or terrorism, or else we were always made to believe that terrorism necessarily comes with guns and explosives.

The intellectuals and their supportive media have always downplayed this urban Naxalism by terming this as a production of a BJP led ecosystem. However, while rejecting the bail plea of Akhil Gogoi, recently, the Gauhati High Court had put a sinister account of the urban Naxal ecosystem, which, as expected, is juggling from media discourse.

India being the world's largest democracy, we have always revered activism and intellectualism as a fundamental part of our democratic structure. But activism has undergone various alterations silently, resulting in activism backed terrorism, which often eradicates the distinction between real activism and activism aimed towards spreading terrorism.

On Thursday, the Gauhati High Court had unmasked the same type of terror activism. It stated that what Akhil Gogoi did during anti-CAA protests in Assam was not any sort of 'Satyagraha.' The court instead declared that the violent mob led by self-acclaimed Akhil Gogoi was an act of terrorism which is not a free speech or freedom of expression.

The Gauhati High court's judgment notably exhibits that now to unleash terrorism, you don't require arms and bombs, but you only need a cover of activism. Bombs and guns have now been replaced with Free speech bombs and political activism where one can instigate people with aggressive misinformed speeches to spread terror. Intellectuals of Assam have always provided Akhil Gogoi the intellectualism cover fire to defend Akhil and propagate the acts of Akhil Gogoi as fundamental rights, free speech, right to dissent among the public.

Suppose Akhil Gogoi was merely demonstrating his dissent on a government policy like CAA. Why did this dissent be needed to create enmity among two segments of society, as pointed by Gauhati High Court? Why Akhil Gogoi's brand of activism required him to conspire about buring the houses of Bengali people in the Chabua district of Assam?

If the dissent was against the government and falls under the class of freedom of expression, who gave Akhil Gogoi and his followers the liberty to burn Chabua Railway station, attack CRPF people who were on duty? It might resemble as agitation, but it was never an agitation, it was a terror act as termed by Gauhati High Court, but to scam our eyes, it was presented in the form of agitation to which many of us in emotions became a part of.

If you need any answer to these questions, don't make the mistake of listening to intellectuals' arguments who are the same part of this urban Naxal ecosystem. Simply read Gauhati High Court's judgment, which asserts that Akhil Gogoi had sent 15 workers of his KMSS to Maoist terror camps in Odisha, where they received training about the usage of firearms and explosives.

Why a so-called peaceful Gandhian activist like Akhil Gogoi, portrayed by intellectuals, needed to get his workers trained in Maoist terror camps?

Akhil Gogoi looks look like an activist from outside working for the social cause in Assam. Still, he is a part of a bigger and more horrendous conspiracy at the backend, which the NIA and judgment of Gauhati High Court have exposed. People like Akhil Gogoi have weaponized Free Speech to generate unrest, enmity and stop the journey of Assam to become a part of national power. Had Akhil Gogoi conceived in the idea of democratic India, he would never have been an enthusiast of reading the book of banned terror Maoist books, but then again, intellectuals call this his choice to read and write.

It is similar to saying that I don't support Osama Bin Laden, but I love to read his books based on his terror thoughts and ideas. Assam must stay united to deal with such Urban Naxal forces who present them as activists and intellectuals. Now, they have also gone to extreme lengths of putting a direct war against India. They want to use the people of Assam as their pawn.

Suranjann G Dutta

Spokesperson, BJP Assam Pradesh