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The controversy over the recruitment of 5000 police constables in the State is growing bigger and bigger. The ruling Congress is finding itself cornered, with allegations of corruption and favouritism flowing thick and fast. The two principal Opposition parties, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), have been quick to seize the issue to embarrass Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi.
Raising the pitch today, the BJP has called a 12-hour Assam bandh on February 9 (Wednesday) from 5 am. Essential services have been exempted. The bandh has been called to protest the disproportionate appointment of Muslims in the police force. The party had demanded the cancellation of the entire recruitment process.
Announcing the bandh, former state BJP president Rajen Gohain alleged that there is a "deep conspiracy" behind the large scale appointment of Muslims, many of them with doubtful antecedents, in the police. "It is one of the phases in the scheme to create an Islamic nation out of the North East," he said. There are 21 Islamic fundamentalist organisations already active in the region to transform this idea into reality. The Pakistani Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) is backing them, the Nagaon MP said.
Accusing the Congress of unfairly favouring the Muslims in the entire recruitment process, Gohain said that 40 percent of the total posts have gone to them. Minister of State for Home Rockybul Hussain, has himself admitted to it, Gohain claimed. He wondered how the Congress Government could take such a decision. The BJP leader further said that 42 percent of the constables recruited in Nagaon district are from the minority community while in the case of neighbouring Morigaon district, the percentage is 65.
Gohain said that what is of greater concern is the fact that the nationality of some of the recruited persons is doubtful. There are also questions regarding their moral and criminal backgrounds, he said. "It has all been done with an eye on the Congress' vote bank," Gohain claimed adding that the tea community, which has also been traditionally favouring the Congress, has been deprived.
"The Congress is most communal. It does not have a secular outlook," said Gohain. He said that the present crisis holds "worrisome and terrible" portents for the future of the state. The BJP leader said that Rockybul Hussain himself has a pro-Pakistani background. Over 70 percent of the appointments in the Home Guards in Nagaon district has gone in favour of the Muslims, he stated.
Gohain said that even the indigenous Assamese Muslims have been deprived in the recent appointments. Those deserving to be appointed on compassionate grounds were also discriminated against.
The Assam bandh on Wednesday is only a part of the prolonged agitation that the BJP has planned to push the Congress Government to the wall. The opposition party has called for an hour-long blackout from 6 pm on February 14 to symbolise the "darkness that has enveloped Assam." The party is organising a mass awareness week from February 15 to 22 to take the issue to the people's doorsteps. The campaign will be carried out in every town and village, Gohain stated. Meanwhile, the planned Dispur gherao, to pressurise Tarun Gogoi to quit, would be carried out on March 9. The BJP plans to bring one lakh workers to participate in the gherao.
Since the list of 5000 candidates recruited in the Assam Police as constables was announced on February 3, the Congress Government has had to face a fusillade of accusations of foul play. There have been allegations that Ministers, legislators and influential Congress functionaries have pulled strings to ensure that their favoured candidates make it to the final list. The Government, of course, has denied such allegations.
Meanwhile, the AGP has held the
Chief Minister responsible for the breakdown of law and order that has
followed the announcement of the final list. It is Gogoi's lack of administrative
acumen that has led to the present situation, the party said. The AGP is
organising mass demonstrations all over the State on February 15 demanding
the dismissal of the Congress Government.
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