News Analysis India

Tag: Sherman Ali Ahmed

  • Congress suspends MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed over ‘insult’ to martyrs of Assam agitation

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI: Controversial Assam Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed, who had ruffled quite a few feathers with his provocative statement on the martyrs of the Assam agitation, was suspended by the party on Monday.

    “President APCC (Assam Pradesh Congress Committee) Bhupen Kumar Borah has suspended Sherman Ali Ahmed from Congress party with immediate effect for repeatedly violating party discipline,” the suspension order reads.

    Earlier, several FIRs were lodged with the police against the Baghbar MLA. He was produced in the court of the Chief Judicial Magistrate, Kamrup, on Sunday and remanded to two days’ police custody.

    The Congress show-cause notice served on Ahmed on October 1 reads: “…Despite holding a responsible position as an MLA, you have time and again given statements in media and in public forum against party policies and matters with communal overtones having great propensity to destroy the social harmony of our state.”

    Borah said if the party had taken disciplinary action against the MLA in the past, he would not have dared to make controversial statements, one after another.

    “He made several controversial remarks in the past but no action was taken against him. We will not tolerate indiscipline. We will maintain zero tolerance against indiscipline,” Borah said.

    Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha, who is the working president of the Congress in the state, said the party under Borah did not waste any time in taking action against the MLA.

    “Soon after we had learnt about his statement, we served a show-cause notice on him. After Bhupen Kumar Borah took over as our state chief, our party has got streamlined. We will take action against anyone found acting against party discipline,” Purkayastha said.

    Ahmed had made the provocative statement in connection with the recent eviction drive in Darrang in which two persons were killed and several others injured. The statement had triggered widespread protests in the state.

  • “Why no action against Himanta?”Assam Congress digs up CM’s old ‘Jai Bangladesh’ remarks

    By Express News Service

    GUWAHATI:  The Congress in Assam on Sunday asked the police why no action was taken against Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his ‘Jai Bangladesh’  remark in the state assembly two years ago.

    “We won’t give protection to anyone for any act that is against the law. But we cannot accept police inaction against BJP MPs and ministers taking the law into their hands,” state Congress chief Bhupen Kumar Borah said.

    “Let the organisations going after us also talk about the person who shouted the ‘Jai Bangladesh’ slogan in the assembly. Why was no action taken against the chief minister?” he asked.

    The issue was raked up in the wake of the arrest of Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed for his provocative statement on the killing of eight youth at Darrang during the Assam Agitation in 1983.

    The party served a show-cause notice to Ahmed and is likely to suspend him by night. Following his arrest, the MLA had demanded, “Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma should be arrested for making communal remarks”.

    In December 2019, Sarma had made the statement when some members of the Opposition were protesting the introduction of Citizenship (Amendment) Bill in the Assembly.

    Later, an FIR was filed against him. Stating that the law has fixed accountability for the  police, Borah asked, “Will the police function as dictated by the Ministers and the MLAs or the Police Act?” 

    VP inaugurates hospital infra 

    GUWAHATI: Cancer treatment in Assam, which reports around 52,000 new cases every year, is set to get augmented with the installation of a PET-MRI wing at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital in Guwahati.

    It was inaugurated by Vice-President M Venkaiah Naidu on Sunday.

    He was in Assam on a tour of northeast states. Set up at a cost of Rs 62 crore, it is the first-of-its-kind PET-MRI wing in the northeast and the fourth such facility installed at a government hospital in the country.

    The machine works faster than PET-CT and is essential for advanced cancer research activities. 

  • Assam Congress MLA detained for ‘provocative’ remarks on eviction drive in Darrang district

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: Assam Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed was on Saturday detained by the police over the “provocative” remarks he allegedly made in reference to the recent eviction drive in Darrang district, a senior police officer said.

    Ahmed was picked up from MLA quarters in Dispur and taken to Panbazar police station for questioning, the officer said.

    “We have detained him for interrogation. Any decision on his arrest will be taken in due course of time,” the officer added.

    Several organisations, including the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), have filed complaints against the legislator for his remarks.

    The Assam Pradesh Congress Committee had on Friday slapped a show-cause notice on the MLA for his “communally provocative” statements ahead of the bypolls in the state, and sought a reply from him in three days.

    Ahmed reportedly made the “communal” remarks while reacting to assertions by some leaders of the BJP-led ruling alliance that the alleged encroachers in Sipajhar area of Darrang district “had killed” eight people in 1983 during the six-year-long Assam agitation.

    The MLA claimed that the eight people who died in the agitation were “not martyrs, but killers”, as they were involved in slaughtering others from the minority community of Sipajhar area, where Gorukhuti is located.

    Justifying the killings, he reportedly said that “the attack” on the eight people was an act of “self defence” by the Muslim population of that area.

    The state Congress unit, in its notice, said, “As a lawmaker, your communally provocative comments in media, gnawing at old wounds of the past incidents of Assam Agitation when people of Assam across communities had suffered, is totally insensitive and uncalled for.

    “APCC views your comments as politically motivated with intent to cause damage to the Congress party just prior to the bye-elections,” it added.

    The state’s ruling alliance partner, Asom Gana Parishad, born out of the Assam agitation, had organised protests at various places, including Dibrugarh, Barpeta, Mangaldoi, Dhemaji, Tezpur, Biswanath, Nalbari, Bongaigaon, Majuli and Morigaon, and burnt effigies of the MLA.

    An eviction drive held last month in Darrang passed off peacefully on the first day but was conducted amid stiff resistance by locals on the second, leaving two dead in police firing, including a 12-year-old boy.

    Over 20 people were injured in the melee, including policemen.

  • Assam detention centres for declared ‘foreigners’ have 22 children, Assembly told

    By Express News Service
    GUWAHATI: Twenty-two children, 20 of them aged below 14 years, are lodged at three “detention centres” in Assam.

    They are the children of nine women who too are incarcerated. The detention centres house the declared foreigners.

    “Nine convicted women foreigners along with 22 children are presently lodged in three detention centres viz Kokrajhar, Silchar and Tezpur. Of the 22 children, two are above 14 years and 20 below 14 years,” Home Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the Chief Minister, told the Assembly replying to a query from Congress MLA Sherman Ali Ahmed on Monday.

    The six detention centres in the state currently have 181 detenues, he said. Of them, 61 were declared foreign nationals while the remaining 120 others, who were convicted by the court and whose period of sentence was over, were awaiting deportation.

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    In deference to an order issued by the Supreme Court on May 10, 2019, altogether 273 detenues, who had spent more than three years in detention, were released on bail by the government. Subsequently, another 481 were released based on separate orders issued by the SC and the Gauhati High Court in April 2020.

    Replying to another query, Sarma said from December 23, 2009 to June 30 this year, 2,551 people, declared foreigners by various Foreigners’ Tribunals (FTs), were kept at the centres. He said 29 people died till date during detention due to various diseases.

    The first person to be kept at a detention centre was Krishna Biswas. He was sent to Goalpara detention centre on December 23, 2009.

    The cases of suspected foreigners are dealt with by the FTs. As on April 30 this year, they have disposed of 2,98,471 cases. Of them, 1,39,900 were declared as foreigners and 321 were repatriated. 

    From 1997-98 to April 30, 2021, altogether 1,36,386 cases of doubtful voters have been disposed of. Another 90,810 cases are pending, the Home Minister said.