Nava Thakuria
Even though public responses go on eroding, many separatist militant outfits of northeast India continue calling to boycott the Independence Day and Republic Day. Following the decades long tradition, some of the banned armed outfits called for a complete shutdown in the region (they often describe as the western part of southeast Asia) on 15 August too. The militants strongly urged the north-eastern people to avoid all kinds of celebrations relating to 77th I-Day. But the question that arises is, if this kind of boycott calls make any impact on the 60 million residents of the region. If one looks at the I-Day celebrations this year, millions of them participate in the occasion with full patriotic fervour and thus outrightly defied the militants’ diktat.
All the chief ministers of north-eastern States took the lead in hoisting the Tricolour in respective State capitals, where they paid homage to all martyrs and freedom fighters who sacrificed everything in the struggle against the imperialist British forces to make India a sovereign nation. Addressing the people on the sacred occasion, they also highlighted the welfare schemes and future plans. Parallelly, the citizens joined in the celebration organised by both the government and communities.
However, there was a time, when both the auspicious days were greeted with a very low response by the common people following the relentless threats from a large number of militant outfits. The entire region then wore a deserted look as the public places like markets, business centers, private offices etc were closed, and no vehicles plied on roads. For many people, both the I-Day and R-Day turned out to be holidays where they preferred to stay home to avoid any unwanted (sometimes violent) incidents.
But amidst all threats and enormous insecurities, a small group of unarmed Assamese journalists and patriotic citizens dared to defy the armed rebel’s diktat and hoisted the Tricolour at the city press club premise to remember the supreme sacrifice of martyrs. They asserted that the sacrifice of Piyali Phukan, Maniram Dewan, Piyali Barua, Kanaklata Barua, Mukunda Kakoti, Kushal Konwar, Tilak Deka, Bhogeswari Phukanani, Nidhanu Rajbangshi, Kamala Miri, Lerela Boro, Madan Barman, Rauta Kachari, Hemoram Patar, Gunavi Bordoloi, Thagi Sut, Balaram Sut, etc must not be forgotten.
But now everyone prefers to celebrate both the auspicious days with utmost conviction to pay tributes to hundreds of thousands of known & unknown martyrs. As the ethnic insurgents have lost their support bases in the last few decades, their mentors in the media have also disappeared, thanks to the aggressive social media outbursts against those self-centered intellectuals. The small initiative of those brave individuals have finally attracted more and more like-minded citizens to join in the celebration both in community and government functions.
A group of nationalist citizens also pursued the people to defy the militants’ diktat on I-Day and R-Day. Denouncing the diktat, the Patriotic People’s Front Assam (PPFA) insists on paying respect to the martyrs, who laid down their lives for the noble cause, by saluting the Tricolour that represents the sacrifice of millions of known and unknown martyrs during the freedom movement.
Referring to Manipur based armed groups namely Kangleipak Communist Party (KCP), Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL), People’s Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), PREPAK-Pro, Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF), People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and United National Liberation Front (UNLF), which too issued the diktat at a time of turmoil that resulted in the killing of over 180 people, destruction of many public & private properties, displacement of over 50,000 people till date, the PPFA asserted that it was most unwanted, particularly when both houses of the Parliament extensively debated over the matter and the lawmakers (including Prime Minister Narendra Modi) unanimously expressed their concern over the ongoing ethnic violence.
The forum opined that the patriotic citizens of Manipur irrespective of their religion or ethnic identities should come forward defying the militants’ diktat and salute the national flag as a gesture, because the Tricolour does not belong to the government or political parties in power alone, but every proud Indian! And in reality it happened. The patriotic citizens of Manipur in particular and Northeast in general came out to celebrate the auspicious festival in a peaceful way. What more the separatist militants need to realise that the people of Manipur have changed their mindset in the recent past, slowly but steadily !
