Proceedings in the Assam Assembly on Wednesday were marred by chaos as the ruling party and opposition members engaged in heated exchanges in connection with last week’s boundary clash with Mizoram, PTI reported.
The ruckus forced Speaker Biswajit Daimary to adjourn the House for 40 minutes.
The Opposition, comprising the Congress, the All India United Democratic Front, the Bodoland People’s Front, the Communist Party of India (Marxist) and Independent MLAs, rushed to the Well of the House demanding an investigation into the clashes at the state border. They demanded that the Central Bureau of Investigation or the National Investigation Agency probe the matter.
Members from the ruling BJP also rushed to the Well of the House to counter these allegations. Legislators from the two sides pointed fingers at each other and banged the desk several times.
Earlier in the day, Congress MLA Kamalakhya Dey Purkayastha alleged that the boundary dispute began in October 2020 and questioned why the government did not act on the warnings issued by the Opposition then.
“We had given a letter to the Union government informing it about the issue,” Times Now quoted Purkayastha as saying. “Even after that, why did personnel of Assam Police die? Whose fault was this?”
In response, the state’s Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pijush Hazarika said that Assam and Mizoram are not two different nations, but two neighbouring Indian states. “We have to solve our problems through dialogue and the process has already started,” he said. “But I would like to inform the House that 34 people died in their [Congress] tenure [in inter-state clashes] since 1974.”
The ruckus in the Assembly took place a day before ministers of Assam and Mizoram are slated to meet in Aizawl with the aim of resolving the boundary conflict. While Assam has nominated Ministers Atul Bora and Ashok Singhal for the meeting, Mizoram has not yet named its representatives, reported The Hindu.
Border clashes
Five police officers from Assam were killed on July 26 after violence erupted along the state’s border with Mizoram.
The Mizoram government claimed that around 200 Assam Police personnel had crossed a duty post manned by the Central Reserve Police Force and the state police in Vairengte town in Kolasib district.
Subsequently, Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke with Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga to arrive at a peaceful resolution of the dispute.
The boundary between Assam and Mizoram is disputed at several points. The two states have often sparred over it, sometimes violently. Several rounds of dialogue at various levels since 1994 have failed to resolve the disagreement.
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