By Heena Fatima
New Delhi: Members of Hindutva groups disrupted a discussion on evictions in Assam at the Constitution Club of India Tuesday evening. The event, titled People’s Tribunal on Assam: Eviction, Detention and the Right to Belong, saw panelists discussing the ongoing detention and displacement of Muslims in the state as part of an anti-Bangladeshi drive.
It was disrupted for about 15 minutes when around 30–35 protesters associated with Hindutva organisations stormed the hall around 4 pm, carrying placards and shouting slogans like Jai Shri Ram, Vande Mataram, and ‘ghuspethiyon desh chhodo (infiltrators, leave the country)’ and ‘desh ke gaddaron ko goli maro‘ (shoot the traitors).
One placard read: Assam ki sanskriti, Assam ki shaan, nahin hone denge koi nuqsaan (Assam’s culture, Assam’s pride. We will not allow any harm to it.)
“These people (the panelists) are a threat to the security of the nation. They should all be thrown out,” said one protester, while speaking to ThePrint.
Civil society activists including Harsh Mander, Prashant Bhushan, Jawhar Sircar, Syeda Hameed, Wajahat Habibullah, Ritumbra Manuvie, and Fawaz Shaheen were part of the event organised by the Association for Protection of Civil Rights and Karwan-e-Mohabbat.
Earlier this month, they had visited Guwahati, Goalpara, and Kamrup districts in Assam to interact with people displaced by various eviction drives carried out by the state government over the past two months, and were caught unawares by the disruption.
“If any Bangladeshi comes here and tries to impose their dictatorship, we will not tolerate it,” said Ankur, who claimed to be an RSS member. Another protester added, “This country does not belong to Rohingyas or Bangladeshis. This is our land.”
Former Planning Commission member Syeda Hameed said it is “regrettable” that such a protest could disrupt an event at a venue like the Constitution Club of India. On the situation in Assam, she said the state was not what it has become now. “The word ‘miya’ has now turned into a curse,” she said.
This story was originally published in theprint.in. Read the full story here.
