Guwahati, July 9: Supporters of Congress leaders representing the linguistic minorities of the Brahmaputra Valley today joined the chorus of protests over the allegedly skewed composition of the Tarun Gogoi government even as the PCC claimed there was no post-downsizing dissidence in the party.
A forum of various Bengali youth organisations picked veteran Ardhendu Dey?s omission from the new-look ministry as a reflection of the government?s alleged apathy towards linguistic minorities.
It said at least one of the three Congress legislators representing the 48 lakh-strong Bengali population of the Brahmaputra Valley should have been in the government.
The forum said Bengalis of the Brahmaputra Valley felt betrayed when a Congress leader from the Barak Valley, which has a Bengali population of only about 18 lakh, was included in the ministry.
President of the forum Sanjib Chakraborty has called a six-hour demonstration at Last Gate on Monday. A convention will follow at Hojai, Dey?s constituency, on July 25 to chalk out the forum?s future course of action.
Chakraborty said a co-ordination committee would be formed to spearhead the agitation.
The youth leader said the Gogoi government had impeded the development of the community in general by not giving it adequate representation in the government.
?In 1996, the then Congress government, under the chief ministership of Hiteswar Saikia, decided to form a Linguistic Minority Development Board, but the present Congress government has not taken any step to implement the decision taken by the same party many years ago,? Chakraborty said.
He claimed Bengalis of the Brahmaputra Valley were often harassed in the name of detecting ?foreigners?.
The forum gave the government a month to announce steps for the welfare of the community.
At another news conference, PCC general secretary Haren Das insisted there was no dissidence in the party over the exclusion of some senior leaders from the ministry. ?All these media reports about dissidence are baseless. There is no resentment within the party.?
Das said it was the chief minister?s prerogative to select his council of ministers and all party members had accepted his decisions.
He admitted, however, that everyone would have been happy had a couple of senior former ministers been retained.