NEW DELHI, Aug 17:
Standing united, a concerned Parliament today rallied behind people from the northeast after their exodus from some States with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh vowing to crack down on rumour mongers who have spread panic among them.
The Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sent a clear message that people of northeast had nothing to worry and everything will be done to make them feel safe with Rajya Sabha adopting a resolution demanding a thorough probe into the spread of rumours of impending attacks against them in the wake of the Assam violence.
“We will do everything to provide them security,” Singh said, warning of stern action against the rumour mongers behind the “most reprehensible” act of creating insecurity.
“We must curb all the elements which are out to create trouble on this sensitive issue,” he said, adding a message has to be sent out to all those who want to disturb peace.
“We should send a clear message that we will do everything to provide security to people from northeast living in various parts of the country,” he said, asserting they have “as much right” as anybody else to study and work in any part of the country.
As members in both Houses cut across party lines to voice concern at the panic created in States like Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu, Rajya Sabha passed a resolution seeking investigation against those creating panic.
“The House expresses its serious concern at the feeling of persecution of our brothers and sisters of the North Eastern States, who are leaving various cities and returning to the North East.
“…The mischief mongers and anti-national elements behind the electronic campaign to create panic should be urgently investigated by the authorities,” the resolution read out by Chairman Hamid Ansari said.
Raising the issue in the Lok Sabha, Leader of the Opposition and BJP leader Sushma Swaraj stressed on the need to rise above party lines and sent a clear message that people from the northeast have the freedom to live, work and study wherever they wish in the country.
Both the Houses took up impromptu debate on the issue amid demands for suspension of Question Hour. While Question Hour was suspended in the Upper House, Kumar took up the issue without any suspension in the Lok Sabha.
The Rajya Sabha passed a resolution declaring that it was one with the people of North East and shared concern over the fleeing of people from different parts of the country.
The North Eastern Region of our country is a very sensitive region, but one thing that I would like to say that whatever may have happened in Kokrajhar and other areas should not be used as an occasion to fan rumours to create an environment in other parts of our country that the people of the North East feel insecure,” said the Prime Minister, who represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha.
Cautioning that communal harmony as well as unity and integrity of the country was at stake, he said miscreants spreading rumours that have led to panic among people belonging to North East would be brought to book.
Singh said his Government would work with all “like- minded” people to bring the situation under control without any loss of time.
Singh urged the people to maintain unity and integrity of the country. The people are one and “we will do everything to provide them security,” he said, adding it was duty of everyone to create an atmosphere where rumour mongering will come to an end.
The Government will create a feeling of security among people of North East in every part of the country, he said.
Singh said he was in touch with the Chief Ministers of various States who assured him that “we will do our utmost to ensure that our friends, our children and our citizens from the North East feel secure in any part and every part” of our country.
Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde hailed the message of unity given by Parliament with the people of North East and said both the Centre and the State Governments had taken prompt action to check the spread of violence. However, rumour mongering was a major cause for the panic among them.
Assuring the House that he would ask all States to take preventive action wherever necessary, Shinde said he had asked the Director of Intelligence Bureau to trace the source of the SMSes and internet sites like Facebook and Youtube that appeared to be the cause of the trouble.
Announcing that 170 persons had been arrested for the violence in Kokrajhar and other areas of Assam, 24 in Mumbai and 13 in Pune, he appealed to all those who had left their places of work and studies and fled to the North East to return and continue with their normal lives.
The debate saw members cutting across party lines asking the Government to come down heavily against those behind the incidents as also rumour-mongering.
CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta accused the Government of not being hard in tackling the situation and said “sweet appeals do not make sense to the villains. Our words must match our deeds”. He warned that if timely action was not taken, it would give a fillip to the terrorist movement in the North East.
RJD chief Lalu Prasad utilised the occasion to make a veiled attack on BJP-RSS, saying “everyone knows who spread rumours about Ganesha idols drinking milk”. He also recalled the attacks on Biharis in Maharashtra.
He said all this was being done “with an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha elections” as some people wanted to gain political mileage out of it.
Nama Nageshwar Rao (TDP) as also M Thambidurai (AIADMK) condemned the incidents and said the people of the North East were “our brothers” and both the Central and State Governments should take all steps to protect their lives and property.
Mehboob Baig (National Conference) warned against politicisation or sensationalisation of such issues and sought long-term solutions to problems in the Northeast.
Lamenting that, like in Kashmir, the problems of North East have been allowed to linger for long, he suggested that Government should take a relook at Assam Accord and other such agreements to make them suit the present needs.
T Meinya (Cong) and Prem Das Rai (Sikkim Democratic Front) sought stringent action against the perpetrators of violence and the rumour-mongers, while Bijoya Chakraborty (BJP) wondered where Hindus from Assam should go as there has been “majority of Bangladeshi people” in 14 of the 27 districts of the state.
In the Rajya Sabha, Leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley said a fear psychosis was being created among North Eastern people and it was “an onerous responsibility on each one of us to make sure that this panic situation, this rumour mongering, comes to an end.”
The Central and State Governments and all political parties should speak in one language and make sure that “this exodus stops immediately and those who have been misled to go back, return to their place of work and study,” he said.
Tariq Anwar (NCP) and Balvinder Singh Bhunder (SAD) sought immediate identification and strict action against people responsible for creating rumours, while Kanimozhi (DMK) demanded curbs on the social media.
Ram Vilas Paswan (LJP) and M P Achuthan (CPI) urged the Government to unmask the conspiracy behind events, while Barun Mukherji (AIFB) said the situation should be dealt “on a war footing.”
Meanwhile, driven by rumours of impending attacks, the exodus of people from the northeast spread from Bangalore to neighbouring cities on the third day today, prompting the Centre to ban for 15 days bulk SMSes and MMSes across the country.
Notwithstanding assurances of safety by the Centre and the Karnataka Government to the people of the Northeast, hordes of them living in Mysore, Mangalore and Kodagu made a beeline to the railway ticket counters here to return to their States.
More than 15,000 people have fled the city in the past two days following the rumours, officials said today.
The Railways had sold 9,718 tickets for the two special trains that headed to Guwahati last night, Divisional Railway Manager, Bangalore, Anil Kumar Agarwal, said this morning.
Officials estimate the number of people from the northeast, including students, residing in Bangalore in the range of 2.5 lakh and 2.75 lakh.
In Chennai, over 1,000 people from the northeast were reported to have taken trains out of the city.
To check the spread of rumours, Centre today clamped a 15-day ban of bulk SMSes and MMSes across the country.
The decision was taken after reports of widespread circulation of SMSes and MMSes containing misleading information about Assam violence and threats of attacks to people from the northeastern region.
Under the order, no one from today will be able to send more than 5 SMSes in one go and more than 20KB of data through mobile phones during the ban period. (PTI)
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