GUWAHATI:
Congress leaders and workers, who staged a protest outside Hotel Radisson Blu in Guwahati where rebel Shiv Sena legislators are staying amidst deepening political crisis in the ruling Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government in Maharashtra since June 22, were detained by the police, on June 24.
Around 32 Congress members, including Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Bhupen Kumar Bora, leader of opposition in Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia, former minister Rockybul Hussain, Mahila Congress president Meera Barthakur, former MPs Bolin Kuli and Dwijen Sharma and media department chairman Manjit Mahanta, gathered in front of the hotel to protest against “horse-trading of MLAs” by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government in Maharashtra.
After detention all of them were brought to a make-shift jail at Gorchowk Police Station and were later on Personal Recognizance (PR) bond.
“You can detain us, you can beat us, you can even kill us, but you can’t stop us from raising our voices against your dictatorship and unlawful acts,” Bora wrote in a popular micro-blogging website.
The Congress delegation also sent a letter asking Shiv Sena leader Eknath Shinde, who has been camping with at least 40 rebel MLAs at the hotel, to leave the state immediately.
In his letter, Bora wrote, “You are aware that Assam is a land where people give a lot of respect to ethics and values. Your presence in Guwahati with MLAs of the ruling Shiv Sena from Maharashtra, who have been kept in a hotel for alleged horse-trading to topple the elected Maharashtra government and the continued media coverage of the same, has not gone well with the Assamese people and is creating an unhealthy atmosphere.”
Training guns at the BJP-led government, Bora wrote that since Assam is facing an acute flood crisis, the presence of the MLAs in such a situation is keeping the entire state machinery busy providing them a “royal hospitality” and that is unfair for the scores of people who have been suffering in the state.
“Assam is facing a devastating flood situation and the flood-affected people are suffering severely in absence of adequate flood reliefs. According to government data, altogether 107 people have died in flood and landslides since April 6. In such a critical and deplorable situation of the state, your presence in Guwahati and the busy activities of the Assam government in providing royal hospitality to you is quite unfair and unacceptable. Assam has been defamed by your presence considering Guwahati as a safe haven for MLAs who have no respect for constitutional values and loyalty at all,” read the letter.
Meanwhile, another Shiv Sena MLA joined the camp of rebel legislators headed by Shinde, taking the number to 38. The latter has claimed that he has the support of 40 out of the total 55 Shiv Sena MLAs and 12 independents legislators.
Shinde, who has claimed that his faction is the “real Shiv Sena”, has sent letters carrying signatures of 37 MLAs to state assembly deputy Speaker Narhari Zirwal, Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and the legislature secretary to inform them about his appointment as the legislature party leader and that of Bharat Gogawale as the party’s chief whip.