GUWAHATI: The All Assam Students' Union (Aasu) does not want disintegration of the age-old bonding between the indigenous ethnic groups in the name of creating separate states and blamed the Congress and its vote-bank politics for the present unrest in the state.
Reacting to intense separate state demands by Koch-Rajbongshis, Bodos, Karbis and Dimasas for the first time, Aasu asked the Centre to give constitutional safeguards to the ethnic groups.
The students' body, which had led a six-year-long mass movement to free the state from illegal migration from Bangladesh, believes that the Assamese community will lose its age-old identity with divisions among various ethnic groups. "The greater Assamese community is an assemblage of all indigenous ethnic groups living in the state and we can't think of separation of one ethnic group from the other. But we support the cause of constitutional safeguards for every indigenous ethnic group in the state," said Aasu adviser Samujjal Bhattacharjee.
"The root cause of the recent unrest in the state is the decision of the Congress-led UPA government to create Telangana. But one must know why the decision was taken. It's nothing but a clear tactic of Congress to gain more seats in the 2014 polls," said Bhattacharjee.
Aasu said the Centre has no sympathy for the common people but is only seeing its political mileage through the formation of Telangana. "The consequences are known to the government but still they took the decision. It reflects the government's vote-bank politics," he added.
Aasu said it has been planning a convention with all ethnic groups.
Student bodies in the state have always been playing the lead role in any movement. If it was AASU leading the anti-foreigners' movement in the late Seventies and early Eighties, separate state demand by Karbis and Dimasas, Bodos and Koch-Rajbongshis are also being led student bodies of their respective communities.
