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Bandematram – echoes in the air of Assom as defiant Indian nationalists plan to celebrate Indian Independence on Aug 15 defying ULFA and other militants
We will not let them touch our mother India says Suren Hazarika of Dibrugarh. ULFA and four other militant outfits have called for boycotting Indian flag and celebration of Indian Independence Day on August 15th. People of Assom are rising to day in the tune of Bandemataram. They are ready to take it to streets to celebrate Indian Independence Day. They do not have enough guns or bullets to kill. We will be in the streets rejoicing the Indian independence says the majority in Assom.
With the demand for Tricolour skyrocketing this time, the State Khadi Board, whose tailoring unit at the factory here supplies the national flag to the entire region, was compelled to hire additional hands.
“We have to deliver more than 25,000 flags by the evening of 14 August. Our city counters have so far sold over 5,500 pieces. It is obvious that the boycott call has failed to throw a spanner,” said a board official. “Most buyers are individuals planning to unfurl the national flag on their premises on Independence Day to awaken their children to the significance of the occasion,” a sales clerk at the board’s headquarters here said.
It is for the first time the separatists will see the momentum and will power of common people that made India independent from British Raj. The British in the independence movement killed my grand father and now when I go on the street on August 15th, ULFA will try to kill me – says Hazarika. With the same enthusiasm India especially Assom will celebrate the Independence Day.
While extremists have been warning against celebrating Independence Day in the region for two decades now, common people and school children steer clear of government functions on the day. Most city-dwellers in the region mark the occasion by watching the celebrations in New Delhi and in other state capitals.
“My children will never understand the significance of Independence Day if I can’t organise a celebration, however low-key, in my house by unfurling the Tricolour. When we were young, we would participate in public celebrations which have, of course, become history now,” said Mr Anil Baruah, a resident of Mother Teresa Road in Guwahati.
“This may be construed as the silent protest of the faceless masses against the blasts and killings engineered by militants in the run-up to Independence Day” said a State Khadi Board member, who is also a prominent leader of the ruling Congress.
Probably apprehending trouble, the Northeast Frontier Railway has suspended night service on both broad gauge and metre gauge sections across Assam from tonight to 15 August. ULFA members stepped up attacks on railway tracks over the past two days.
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