The militants groups of Northeast, including United Liberation Front of Asom-Independent (ULFA-I) have appealed to the people of the region to boycott the Independence Day celebration.
The Coordination Committee (CorCom), a conglomerate of major militant groups of Northeast, has imposed a general strike on August 15.
The CorCom in a statement has made an appeal to the people to boycott India’s Independence Day and observe the general strike on August 15, which will commence from 1:30 am to 6:30 pm.
However, essential services: flood relief work, medical services, electricity and water supply, fire services and religious ceremonies and practices shall remain outside the purview of the strike, said the statement.
The outfit said that for the people undertaking the struggle of self-determination the celebration of Independence Day on August 15 had no meaning.
It claimed that just as India became Independent after more than 100 years of British Colonial rule on August 15, the “Western South East Asia” (WESEA) region too secured their freedom.
Unfortunately, just as soon as the British left the region, the “colonialist hungry” Indian Imperialists rapidly utilised force and treachery to integrate many regions who became free on August 15. And some of these regions were taken over through sheer military manoeuvres, it said.
The rebel group claimed that after forcibly integrating these regions, all the democratic institutions were abolished and the indigenous people were made to become dependent on India.
All the indigenous customary laws for self-governance were torn into shreds and the Indian central will was enforced on the sons of the soil, it claimed.
Attempts are still underway to transform the indigenous cultures of WESEA through the imposition of Hindu ways of life, and the popularisation of Hindi language and the population invasion of Hindi speaking Indians, the outfit added.
“India is waging a major war of racial discrimination over the indigenous populations of WESEA. The RSS-BJP’s ideology of “one nation, one religion and one language” should be fought tooth and nail by the rising indigenous peoples” the outfit maintained.
The recent events around scrapping of Article 370 of the Indian Constitution and bifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir without the consent of the people of the state show India’s arrogance and blatant disregard of democratic principles, the outfit lamented.
The rebel group expressed their fear that underhand dealings of shutting down the state machinery and house arrest of prominent leaders clearly portend the kind of dirty policies that would be applied to the people of the Northeast as well.
The further opined that freedom from India’s colonial yoke is the only way to save themselves from being swallowed by Hindustan.