OPEN LETTER AND APPEAL TO SHRI TARUN GOGOI, HON'BLE CHIEF MINISTER OF ASSAM

July 25, 2012

 

To,

Shri Tarun Gogoi
Hon'ble Chief Minister of Assam

OPEN LETTER AND APPEAL

Dear Sir,

We, citizens of India committed to its deep secular and peace loving ethos appeal to you as head of the government in Assam to take all steps to ensure that violence stops, security is given to all displaced and dishoused by the violence so that they may return to their homes forthwith; adequate reparation for the lives lost and homes and other properties destroyed is paid and more than anything else a Fair and Time Bound Judicial Investigation by a Sitting HC Judge is conducted into the build up and fallout of the violence.

What concerns us deeply is the divisive discourse that seeks to create legitimacy for the violence by words and phrases like "infiltrators." Since the mid 1990s tensions have simmered between the majority Bodo Councils and Muslim settlers despite the fact that the latter status was recognised in the Assam accord. Yet under the guise of discriminating between the two a small skirmish blew into a full blown communal conflagration; while the ethnicity of the 32 persons who lost their lives does not matter, the fact that the five persons who lost their lives to police bullets are from the minority has generated fear. There are already 1,70,000 persons in relief camps and they must be assisted with due security to return to their homes immediately. Dialogue must begin between the majority Bodo villages and the Muslim settlers for integrated rehabilitation.

Respecting your commitment to intra community peace we appeal to you to respond to this anguished appeal.

 

Teesta Setalvad, Mumbai
Javed Anand, Mumbai

Dr Asghar Ali Engineer, Mumbai
Ram Puniyani , Mumbai

Irfan Engineer, Mumbai
Hasan Kamal, Mumbai

Zafar Agha, Mumbai

MM Tirmizi, Ahmedabad

Rupa @Tanaz Mody, Ahmedabad
Sairabehn Salimbhai Sandhi, Ahmedabad

Salimbhai Noormohammed Sandhi, Ahmedabad
Tanveer Jafri, Surat

Rajendra Prasad, SAHMAT, Delhi

Ram Rahman, Delhi

M K Raina, Delhi

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