An anti-national and Hinduphobic teacher at a college in Assam’s Silchar was arrested after his students filed an FIR alleging that he had made derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the ‘Sanatan Dharma’ on Facebook.
Souradeep Sengupta, a guest lecturer of Physics at Gurucharan College, in his Facebook post, tried to incite violence by making inflammatory remarks against the Hindus. He accused the BJP and the RSS of “trying to recreate Godhra in Delhi”.
He also alleged that people in Delhi are being “beaten up mercilessly” on account of their religion. Besides making other claims Sengupta had called Prime Minister Narendra Modi a “mass murderer”. His statements were derogatory and evidently bordered on poisonous hate for the Hindus.
On Thursday evening, the teacher apologized for hurting religious sentiments and took down the post but 10 students filed the complaint nonetheless, whilst also requesting the college principal to immediately terminate Sengupta from service.
“I apologise for any religious sentiments I may have hurt by my posts. I made some irresponsible comments about a communally sensitive issue. It was a lapse of judgment. My intention was not to insult any religion at large,” the lecturer wrote in a Facebook post.
The district police acted on the FIR and arrested Sengupta on Friday night from his house in Itakhola area of Silchar. He has been booked under sections 295(A), 153(A), 507 of the Indian Penal Code and section 66 of the IT Act.
In their complaint the students said, “Sourdeep Sengupta, who is a guest lecturer in physics department of Gurucharan College, has made a derogatory remarks and abused the Sanatan Dharma. He has also alleged that the Prime Minister of the nation is a mass murderer and tried to incite communal violence.”
The students of Gurucharan College acted promptly and assertively when the lecturer was trying to incite violence and spewing venom on social media. The politics of Assam has started to drift away from anti- India sentiments, and also even Assamese Chauvinism. The way students acted shows that the fringe-elements who disturb communal harmony in the country are not welcome in Assam.
After Assam bore the brunt of the anti CAA protests during which a massive misinformation campaign was initiated. Rumour mills went on a complete rampage, tensions were fuelled against the Amendment legislation and the anti CAA lobby had run riot, generated vicious xenophobic fears in the state. Seemingly the BJP unit was cornered with anti-party sentiments brewing all around. But what happened from there has been a formidable turnaround. The state seems to have finally seen positive development and leftist narratives are being outrightly rejected.
Assam has been smitten (despite certain hiccups during anti-CAA protests) by Modi-Shah’s politics of nationalism and the people have started to rise up against leftist narratives that seek to divide the Hindu society. Ever since the state got embroiled in violence, BJP and especially Himanta reached out to the people of Assam boldly countering the vicious anti-CAA narrative. Himanta went ahead boldly promoting nationalism above Assamese sub-nationalism, even if it came at the cost of taking the risk of upsetting the chauvinists.
While addressing a rally at Kokrajhar celebrating the historical Bodo Peace Accords, the humongous crowd proved that Assam was well and truly behind Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The accords which were in limbo for ages were ratified under the NDA government and years of violence came to an end. Kokrajhar decked up days ahead of PM Modi’s visit. People of Assam welcomed PM gleefully, showing how he remains extremely popular in the state. One Lakh diyas (earthen lamps) were lit in Assam’s Kokrajhar in order to welcome him on his historic visit to the state. The local people were clearly enchanted with the Bodo Peace Agreement. The Agreement is an expression of hope and peace for the locals, which explains the celebratory manner in which they greeted the Kokrajhar rally. In January, 644 militants belonging to various banned insurgent groups- ULFA (I), NDFB, RNLF, KLO, CPI (Maoist), NSLA, ADF and NLFB, surrendered in the presence of Chief Minister, Sarbananda Sonowal. Another feather in the cap for BJP and example that things are moving in the right direction.
Whenever tough decisions are taken, they are bound to invite the wrath of the public. But what’s important is the reaction of the government towards it. BJP has stayed put patiently and finally, the people of Assam have seen the truth and divisive politics against Hindus have been thrown into the trash. Nationalism is not a bad word as projected by the liberals and the way Assamese people have embraced it is a major meltdown moment for both leftists and liberals indeed who tried their level-best to fan flames of sectarian violence in the state.