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“Election is an indispensable part of democracy” - Bhubaneswar Kalita



Q.  Who are those people?
Mr.  Kalita : Those who are looking for their votes and also those who are raising funds in the name of Adivasis.

Q. Till the other day, the tea garden tribes are known to be the ‘Vote - Bank’ of the congress. Since their expectations were not fulfilled, why should they not now be inclined towards AGP or BJP.
Shri Kalita : This is a fact that the Congress has been trying to fulfill their requirements and  our effort  is still going on. You must know that during AGP’s rule, the then Commissioner of Tribal Welfare wrote on behalf of the erstwhile government opposing the inclusion of Six Tribal communities including the Tea tribe.

Q. : And what about BJP?
Mr. Kalita : The BJP Government brought a Bill  in the Parliament for inclusion of as many as 142 Tribal Communities as Scheduled Tribes but they excluded these six tribal communities of Asom  totally.

Q. : Now, the Congress Party is ruling in both Central and State. What will happen now?
Mr. Kalita : The tea Tribes of Assam will get the recognition as a scheduled Tribe but the process may take some time. But we will put all our efforts to expedite it.

Q.  How will your party fare in the next Panchayat Elections and what will be the strategy of your party to compete with the opposition in view of Beltola incident?
Mr. Kalita : In this Panchayat elections, the Congress is seen everywhere. The opposition is completely divided and weak. They don’t have the strength to put up a fight.

Q.  How you can say this in view of the results of recent election of NCHAC?
Mr. Kalita : In that  election the congress was voted out of  power by the strong nexus of the opposition with the ultras.

Q. But you also won the previous election. Do you mean to say that you also took the help in that election?
Mr. Kalita : No, not at all. The situation, law and order was totally different then. We have our own  strong roots in that region. You should know that in NC Hills only Congress  has its own root for decades. It is only due to ultras that people were scared.

Q. : Did the governor advise to postpone the NCHAC election at that time?
Mr. Kalita : Election is an indispensable part of democracy. You can not avoid it for long.

Q.  If the election is held after some time, would it have benefited the congress?
Mr. Kalita : In that case, the situation would have further deteriorated and the state would have suffered heavily.