Guwahati,: The Congress will take out a rally here tomorrow to demand removal of governor P.B. Acharya for his alleged communal role in discharging his duties.
The rally will start from Sonaram School playground at Bharalumukh and culminate in front of the Kamrup (metro) deputy commissioner’s office at Kachari here. The protesters will submit a memorandum to President Pranab Mukerjee through the deputy commissioner.
PCC president Anjan Dutta today alleged that the governor’s latest reported statement that “Hindustan is only for Hindus” and his subsequent clarification saying Indian Muslims were “free to go to Pakistan” had exposed his communal mindset. He alleged that Acharya had been making “communal” comments since taking charge.
“The acting governor is behaving like an RSS pracharak. As the chancellor of Dibrugarh University, Acharya has nominated several persons with RSS backgrounds to the university court. The sole criterion for nomination of such persons to a prestigious institution like Dibrugarh University was their association with the RSS,” Dutta told reporters here this afternoon.
He warned that if the Centre did not remove Acharya within a month, the Congress would stage protests everyday in front of Raj Bhavan.
The move comes at a time when the chorus condemning Acharya’s controversial remarks is growing louder. The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Nagaland unit of the Congress have joined Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi in demanding the governor’s immediate dismissal.
On Monday, Gogoi had alleged that Acharya had “broken the oath of maintaining the unity and integrity of the country, which he had taken in the name of the Constitution” while BSP chief Mayawati had issued a statement in Lucknow, saying, “He should be immediately dismissed and action initiated against him.”
The Nagaland Congress has also said Acharya has no moral right to hold on to the post of governor after his alleged controversial and communal statements.
In Jorhat, the Sanmilita Nagarik Aikya Manch decided at a citizens’ meet held today to write to the President for removal of Acharya.
Mancha adviser Devabrata Sharma said they would file a case against Acharya for making statements against the Constitution.
Some local television channels have reported that the governor went on a month’s leave soon after his controversial statements came in the line of fire. Sources in the Raj Bhavan, however, expressed ignorance about the development and said the governor was currently in Bangalore for an official engagement.
Speaking at the meet, Assam Film Society general secretary Jayanta Dutta said the Constitution, which was adopted on this day in 1949, was under threat with it main principles of secularism and freedom being violated by a section of people.
The Manch decided to launch a statewide protest against the growing intolerance and condemned Dibrugarh MP Rameswar Teli’s statement, which alleged that litterateur Homen Borgohain had registered his protest by returning his Sahitya Akademi award after taking a bribe from the Congress.
One of the speakers at the meet said disharmony among communities was not new, what was new was the government’s patronage in fostering disharmony.
The meet stressed that the need of the hour was to keep communal forces from taking root in Assam – the land of Xankardeb and Azan Peer – and to oppose tooth and nail fascism in any form.
Tomorrow, the Congress will also protest against rising prices, including that of life-saving drugs, during the Narendra Modi-led government’s regime.
Dutta also claimed that a few BJP leaders, including a sitting MLA, would soon join the ruling Congress. He said the joining of Himanta Biswa Sarma and nine other Congress MLAs in the BJP was a big relief as it had ended dissidence in the Congress.
Dutta alleged that the Modi government had been cheating the people of Assam on every issue, including granting Scheduled Tribe status to six more communities. “The issue is unlikely to be raised during the winter session of Parliament as the Centre is least interested,” he alleged