AASU criticises Assam government over unfulfilled Assam Accord on Martyr’s day

Guwahati, Dec 12: The Assam government observed Martyrs' Day yesterday to pay homage to the martyrs of the Assam movement. However, according to the All Assam Students' Union (AASU), the Government is insulting the martyrs of the movement by not implementing all the clauses of the Assam Accord.

Talking to The Assam Tribune, AASU president Utpal Sarma said that the martyrs of the movement made supreme sacrifice and merely paying homage to them once a year is not enough. If all the clauses of the Accord were not implemented, the sacrifices of the martyrs would go in vain.

"Now we have two options. The first one is to keep quiet and gradually become second-class citizens in our State and the second is to fight till our last breath to ensure implementation of the Accord. The AASU has decided to take the second option and the students' body will keep on fighting till the Accord, signed 39 years back, is implemented," he added.

Sarma pointed out that the people of Assam agitated for six years for signing of the Accord for detection and deportation of foreigners and now they are waiting for 39 years for the Accord to be implemented. The AGP came to power to implement the Accord and it did not do anything and now the party is observing the Martyrs' Day. The party has no moral right to observe Martyrs' Day, he alleged. He also said that the BJP has been in power at the Centre since 2014, but the main clause of the Accord is yet to be implemented.

Replying to a question, Sarma admitted that the present generation of students cannot relate to the agitation as most of them were not even born during that time. Some of those who took part in the agitation have died and some have be- come too old. But as the organization which headed the movement, the AASU will keep on fighting for the implementation of the Accord, he asserted.

The AASU president demanded that the Assam movement should be included in the school textbooks so that the students know about such a mass movement.

He said that the issue should also be a part of Political Science and Sociology textbooks at the University level so that such a crucial juncture of the history of Assam is studied thoroughly by the students.

By R Dutta Choudhury