GUWAHATI: Assam chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Saturday said that his West Bengal counterpart Mamata Banerjee had sent an eight-member delegation of her party MPs and MLAs to the state with an “evil design to polarize the society,” after the draft NRC was published.

Sonowal expressed his gratitude to the people of the state, particularly those in Barak valley, for showing restraint and patience when Banerjee ranted inflammatory remarks and sent a delegation.

“I thank the people of Barak Valley for the exemplary composure that they exhibited without falling prey to the divisive design of the external forces. I am also thankful to the Bengali-speaking people and different organizations scattered across the state for unequivocally registering their protests against West Bengal chief minister’s plan of polarizing the state,” he said.

He said that since the very beginning of updating the NRC, some vested interests were hell-bound in destabilizing the process by making remarks inimical to the age-old unity prevailing among the people of Barak, Brahmaputra, hills and plains, but people of Assam showed a remarkable composure and strengthened the friendship and camaraderie among themselves.

“Assam is a land known for its unity since ages. People belonging to different caste, community, creed and religion symbolize unity which is unique. Several attempts were made to disturb this unity, people of Assam showed resilience and reinforced the state’s unity”, Sonowal said.

“We the people of Assam are guided by the humanitarian and unifying philosophies of Bhupen Hazarika and Hemanga Biswas. Assam and Bengal share harmonious relations since ages and scholar like Ashutosh Mukherjee helped introduce Assamese language in the University of Calcutta. Even Dr. Bhupen Hazarika during prime time of his career spent his days at his Tollygunge residence in Kolkata and produced some of his immortal creations both in Assamese and Bengali. Even Sahityarathi Lakshminath Bezbaroa strengthened the intrinsic relations when he married Noble Laureate Rabindranath Tagore’s grand-daughter Pragya Sundari. Therefore, being a chief minister of such a state which has its deep-rooted culture and traditions, Mamata Banerjee should not have made such baseless comments which have got communal undertone aimed at disturbing the strong relations between Assam and Bengal,” Sonowal said.

The chief minister said that the NRC has been prepared under direct supervision of the Supreme Court of India with the active role of the RGI and it is a document to safeguard the interest of the people of Assam. “It is a matter of pride and prestige for the people of the state to be a part of the updating of the NRC and witness the complete draft publication in an atmosphere of complete peace and rejoice,” he said and condemned the move of external forces to vitiate the peaceful environment in the name of NRC.

“It is just a draft of the NRC. All genuine Indian citizens whose names did not feature in the draft, need not be worried, as they would get ample opportunities to get their names enrolled through disposal of claims and objections,” he added.

