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Several FIRs have been lodged against BJP MLA Shiladitya Dev in various police stations of the state, including a few in Guwahati, on Sunday. The over half-a-dozen complaints have been filed against controversial Assam BJP MLA Shiladitya Dev by various organisations days after he termed revered scholar Syed Abdul Malik (former AXM (Axam Xahitya Xabha) president )an “intellectual jihadi”. Reports on these complaints have been carried in The Sentinel. Assam and PTI.
BJP leader and Assam Minority Development Board Chairman Muminul Aowal condemned the statement and demanded a public apology from his party colleague. “What Shiladitya said, I oppose it and strongly condemned it,” BJP leader Aowal said. “If he does not apologise publicly, then I will always take a strong stand against him.”
The Congress called Dev a “mad person” who should be sent to “mental asylum” for his frequent controversial and communally-sensitive statements.
While APCC’s (Assam Pradesh Congress Committee) minority department chairman Salman Khan, Asom Songrami Yuva Mancha president Amir Hussain and organizational secretary Sankar Thakuria lodged an FIR against the MLA at Hatigaon police station, the All Asom Goriya Yuva-Chatra Parishad president in-charge Mokbul Hussain lodged another FIR at Jalukbari outpost. A case (388/20 u/section 153(A)/505 (ii) IPC) has been registered at Hatigaon Police Station stating these facts.
In another such offensive, members of the Sadou Asom Goriya-Moriya Deshi Jatiya Parishad staged a sit-in at Dighalipukhuripar demanding immediate arrest of the MLA. The Sadou Asom Goria-Moria-Deshi Jatiya Parishad has filed complaints at different police stations in Barpeta, Dhubri and Morigaon districts, while the Sadou Asom Goria Yuva-Chatra Parishad filed a report at Jalukbari police station in Guwahati.
In a statement issued to the media on Sunday, the Parishad said ‘on the pretext of the Thelamara incident the MLA hurling insults at former AXX president Syed Abdul Malik is a direct attack on the AXX and the indigenous people of the State. We condemn such a statement from the MLA. Such a suspicious person has no right to make such a comment.” Following an appeal from the Parishad’s president Hafijul Ahmed FIRs have been filed against the MLA at various police stations in the State.
The Asom Songrami Yuva Manch, too, filed a complaint at the Hatigaon police station and demanded strict action against Dev. Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi strongly condemned Dev’s derogatory remarks against Malik, a highly-respected poet, novelist and short-story writer. Asam Sahitya Sabha president Kuladhar Saikia condemned the “controversial remarks” against Malik, who was also the president of the apex literary body.
Dev had said last Friday that Malik was a poet who was indulging in “intellectual jihad”. He made the remarks while commenting on the recent communal clash in Sonitpur district on the day of the foundation stone-laying of Ram temple.
Cutting across political affiliations, this sparked sharp reactions across the state and many groups burnt effigies of Dev on Sunday.
Last month, Dev had said he would quit the BJP on July 14, alleging neglect and groupism by the leaders, but later he made a u-turn and did not resign. Dev has been in the news for making controversial statements, mostly targeting one particular community, leading to even registering an FIR at the Silchar police station in 2018 for allegedly making provocative statements to divide Assamese and Bengalis.
A case also was filed in the same year in the court of chief judicial magistrate, Nagaon, against the BJP MLA for his frequent communal remarks on the National Register of Citizens (NRC) in the state. Dev had alleged that Hindu refugees were being shown as foreigners, while the names of Bangladeshi Muslims were published in the final NRC.
After unidentified gunmen killed five people in Tinsukia district in November 2018, state BJP president Ranjeet Kumar Dass had said provocative statements by some groups and individuals were to be blamed for the case. Dass had informed the media that Dev had been warned twice not to make any such statements or else the BJP would write to the parliamentary board for taking action against him.
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