Rally against rioters in Siliguri
Posted by barunroy on May 5, 2008
SILIGURI, May 4: Several cultural organisations organised a rally in Siliguri today condemning the assault on a particular ethnic community by some political activists on 2 May. The rally also slammed the district administration for being dictated by the ruling party. A number of academicians hailing from the north Bengal participated in the rally that terminated at the Siliguri court premises after marching through various lanes in the town.
Mr Bani Prasanna Mishra, a retired director, Centre for Himalayan Studies, North Bengal University, said that a solution to the vexed Darjeeling Hill crisis would continue to elude so long as the administration remained partisan in dealing with a democratic movement. “A political problem must be solved by political means principally through dialogue based on restraint and understanding. Hooliganism has no role in a democratic system of polity,” Mr Misra said. Prof Ajit Roy of North Bengal University also castigated the administration for having remained mute spectators while some political activists had gone berserk in tyrannising over innocent people belonging to a particular ethnic community on 2 May.
Mr Mishra alleged that the ruling party with the connivance of a pliant administration was actively instigating communal discord. “The approach as clearly manifested on 2 May would further dim the prospect of an amicable solution to the Hill problem. Innocent families belonging to a particular community were subjected to humiliation by a group of goons owing allegiance to a political party. This is unacceptable to the peace loving people of the region,” the noted academician affirmed. [The Statesman]
