Language martyrs denied govt recognition; Bhasha Shahid Station Samiti appeals to Governor

August 31: Even after six decades of the supreme sacrifice, the language martyrs of Barak Valley has failed to earn their due recognition from the Sarbananda Sonowal led state government. While replying on behalf of the Chief Minister, Chandra Mohan Patowary, Parliamentary expressed views of his government against providing recognition to language martyrs during the ongoing session of Assam Legisalative Assembly. In a reply to a written question raised by Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, Mr. Patawory categorically stated, “The government has till now not adopted any measures to give recognition to the language martyrs of Barak Valley.” It was also informed that the government was not in a position to change the name of Silchar Railway Station to ‘Bhasha Shahid Station, Silchar’.

Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha categorically stated in the floor of the house that this issue of renaming Silchar Railway Station was approved by the central government in the year 2016. The state government was then entrusted to issue a notification about the spelling of the new name of the station in English, Hindi and Bengali and also send it back to the centre. To this, minister Patowary replied that many organisations opposed to change the name of Silchar station to ‘Bhasha Shahid Station, Silchar’ and so doing this will invite law and order problems. The names of the language martyrs of Barak Valley will also not feature in the martyrs park which will be built in Guwahati.

This incident was strongly resented by various individuals and organisations of Barak Valley. For many, “It was an intentional insult meted out to the language martyrs of the valley.” ‘Bhasha Shahid Station Shahid Smaran Samiti’ regarded the attitude of the state government as a “deliberate attempt to insult the ultimate sacrifice made by the language martyrs.”

Expressing his reactions, Dr. Rajib Kar, Secretary of ‘Bhasha Shahid Station Shahid Smaran Samiti’ said, “The deliberations in the Assam Assembly today came as a bolt from the blue to us. How can the wishes and aspirations of lakhs of people of this valley be crushed in such a manner?” Dr. Kar added, “We have written a letter to the Honourable Governor of Assam today, wherein we have sought his kind intervention in this matter.”

Infact a mass demand was raised to change the name of Silchar Railway Station to “Bhasha Shahid Station, Silchar. The Home Ministry approved the mass demand on 7 November, 2016 and issued an approval letter to the state government giving consent for changing the name of Silchar Railway Station to “Bhasha Shaheed Station, Silchar. It was further stated in that letter that the Government of Assam should issue a Gazette Notification about the spelling of the new name of the station in Devanagari (Hindi) Roman (English) & Regional language (i.e. Bengali).

Dr. Rajib Kar said that in the letter addressed to the Governor today, they have also added that, “The enquiry regarding the matter by both the Central and State Governments were in favour of renaming Silchar Railway Station to ‘Bhasha Shahid Station, Silchar’.” He expressed deep anguish at the way the state government has handled the issue. To him, “Such a decision resembles trampling on a issue which is so close to the hearts of the people of Barak Valley.”