GUWAHATI: As the Assam government, along with parties cutting across political lines, observed Martyrs’ Day on Thursday to commemorate the sacrifice of agitators of the All Assam Students’ Union (Aasu)-led anti-foreigners’ movement (1979-85), there were calls from within the government to declassify secret files of home and political departments related to the agitation.
Senior Assam minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who was the minister of Assam Accord Implementation department, urged the government to reveal the classified documents that contain secret communication between the Centre and state government during the movement against illegal infiltration, which remains a burning issue in Assam and the northeast. Himanta, in his speech, at the launch of the Tathyakosh (data book) on Assam Agitation in presence of chief minister Sarbananda Sonowal said many hidden secrets at the government-level have not yet come out in the public domain.
“To date, we know about the Assam Agitation, mostly from the perspective of those who took part in it and the communication between the protesting organizations and the government. But efforts must be made in the subsequent parts of the Tathyakosh volumes that will be compiled at the initiative of the state government to bring to light the then government strategies to counter the movement by collecting relevant classified documents from the central government through tools such as RTI,” said Himanta, showing curiosity to know the counter-strategy of Indira Gandhi, the then PM.
“For objective and holistic study of Assam Agitation and its impact on the state, classified information must be declassified,” he added.
December 10 was mostly being observed only under the aegis of Aasu as Martyrs’ Day in the memory of Khargeswar Talukdar, who died in police action during a road blockade at Bhawanipur in Barpeta district on December 10, 1979. Talukdar was declared the first martyr of the anti-foreigner movement by Aasu, which was followed by troublesome days till the Assam Accord was signed by the agitators with the Centre and the state government in 1985.
“We saw the agitation from the agitators’ perspective. But what went on inside the Assam secretariat in Dispur at that time, people still don’t know. How the government wanted to quell the movement, they planned to find a solution through talks, the level of sincerity on the part of the government is still in the dark. On what ground 1951 became 1971 (cut-off date for detection of illegal foreigners from Assam), people should know,” Himanta said.