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KSU Fires Religious Conversion Salvo at Minister Akon BoraGUWAHATI, Dec 22: After theallegation of rampantly issuing noobjection certificates to set upindustries in Greater Dimoria withouttaking majority of the local Karbi peopleinto confidence, State Social Welfare& Jail Minister and Dispur MLA AkonBora seems to be embroiled in anothercontroversy with the Karbi Students’Union (KSU) blaming Bora forpatronizing religious conversion in theGreater Dimoria area.Talking to The Sentinel, KSU jointsecretary Pardeshwar Tumung said,“Akon Bora has cleverly brought adivision among the plains Karbis settledin the Greater Dimoria area by luring asection of plains Karbis to embraceChristianity. These newly convertedKarbis are being used as vote bank byBora. For his devious political benefits,Bora also facilitated the formation ofAmri Karbi Development Council for asection of Karbi people called AmriKarbis who are in favour of Bora.”Tumung allege that the so calledAmri Karbis are penetrating deep intothe plains Karbi society and slowly butsteadily converting the Hindu Karbisinto Christians, and Bora is themastermind behind the whole game.“As a local MLA, Akon Bora shouldobject to such religious conversion inthe Greater Dimoria area but heencourages it,” Tumung fumed.As Tumung said, “Akon Boraoriginally hails from Majuli where largescalereligious conversion is takingplace. He has brought the trend ofreligious conversion to Greater Dimoriafrom Majuli.”KSU joint secretary said that manysmall and big churches of differentdenominations have sprung up in theGreater Dimoria area, mainly in the hillareas bordering Meghalaya in the last10 years. “Everybody knows that tobuild church, temple, etc plots of landare required. Who does make allotmentof plots of land to build church, temple,etc? Definitely the government andAkon Bora is part of the government.Bora is providing land to allow thechurches to open their centres in theGreater Dimoria area,” he said.Religious conversion is not the onlytrump card used by Bora to take asection of plains Karbi people ofGreater Dimoria in his favour. Bora alsoassured the Amri Karbis of accordingthem Scheduled Tribe (ST) status sothat they can be used as vote bank.“To accord ST status, lots of thingsshould be taken into consideration. Butthe State government, whichconstituted an expert committee forpreparation of the ethnographic reportfor inclusion of Amri Karbi Tribe in theST (H) list of Assam, has included allthe non-experts in the expertcommittee,” Tumung said.According to Tumung, “Amri KarbiNational Council president PadumIngti, Amri Karbi Students’ Unionpresident Hareswar Ronghang, AmriKarbi Tsornam Ahartsi presidentGandhi R Kathar and Amri KarbiBangthe Asem general secretaryKhargeswar Marme have beenincluded by the State government inthe expert committee. These peopleare not experts and they do notdeserve a place in the expertcommittee. We doubt that thesepeople have been included in the expertcommittee following therecommendation of Akon Bora.”In view of the ensuing panchayatelections in the State, the Congresshas asked Amri Karbi leaders ofGreater Dimoria to select candidatesof their choice.“If these things continue, especiallythe issue of religious conversion,ethnic clash may take place betweenthe plains Karbis and the Amri Karbisin Greater Dimoria,” Tumung added.Meanwhile, Amri Karbi NationalCouncil president Padum Ingti, whencontacted, said, “India is a secularcountry and any person can embraceany religion. We never force people toembrace any religion. The allegationof religious conversion leveled by KSUagainst us is baseless. If they haveany proof, they should furnish it.”On the issue of inclusion of someAmri Karbi members including Ingtihimself in the expert committee, Ingtisaid, “Government knows who theexperts are. Government took us in theexpert committee as we know thehistory of the Amri Karbis.”(http://www.sentinelassam.com)(Contd. from Previous Page)Carry Out Rehabilitation on the Basis of Voters’ ...“The voters’ list should be taken as the basis because every voter is supposed to be a citizen of the country and ina democracy, the people’s representatives are elected by the registered voters of the country and Bodoland Councilhas also been a representative of the people of Bodoland. Denying voters their citizenship would mean neglecting theprocess of elected democracy in our country,” the Governor said.He further added that he was endowed with special powers under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India forthe governance of Sixth Schedule areas. He suggested that the BTC authorities should apprise him of the developmentand other issues regularly from time to time.Patnaik suggested immediate introduction of the Panchayati System in BTAD which was an essential part ofdemocratic reforms so that the fruits of development could be enjoyed by the people at the grassroots.On the matter of formation of peace committees, the Governor said that it depends on the cooperation of the BTCand added that there is a deep sense of mistrust among the people. In order to eliminate such mistrust, peacecommittees should be formed at village levels, he said.The Governor emphatically stated that he would be visiting the border areas shortly and would try to expedite thesealing of the border so that no further immigration takes place. (The Sentinel 7.12.12)Heritage Explorer 13 January 2013