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Sunday, Dec 02, 2007
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Buddhadeb’s remarks unfortunate: Gogoi

Special Correspondent

Guwahati: Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi has said that the reported remark of his West Bengal counterpart Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee that “he would not allow an Assam-like situation, where violence is a regular event, to prevail in Bengal” is “without any basis and unfortunate.”

In a statement, Mr. Gogoi said, “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Bhattacharjee has tried to project Assam in a poor light.

There is no comparison at all between what happened at Nandigram for months together and the one at Beltola in Guwahati that was brought under control within a few hours. The Nandigram issue is due to the Government-backed CPI(M)’s desperate attempt to lay siege to the area in utter disregard of democracy and came in for scathing criticism from intellectuals, social activists, political parties and the people at large.”

“The incident that occurred in Guwahati on November 24 last was the result of a clash between some sections of Adivasis and some miscreants. However, the stripping of a woman marcher is highly condemnable and we have already nabbed the culprits behind the heinous crime,” Mr. Gogoi said.

“Even the Left Front government did not allow mediapersons to enter Nandigram. On the contrary, we did not curb the freedom of the press in any manner and did not hide anything about the incident from the whole world,” he said.

Refuting Mr. Chatterjee’s comment that Assam is lagging behind due to violence, Mr. Gogoi said, “If that would have been the case, Assam would not have been ranked as the fastest mover in overall rankings among the States of the country in a national survey carried out recently by a popular magazine.”

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