Magh Bihu or Bhogali Bihu is the joyous Assamese harvest festival marked by songs, dance and feasts. This year things are different. The Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB) became a law after receiving the President’s assent on December 14, following debates in Parliament.
And for more than a month, streets of Assam have been bustling with protests against Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) that has engulfed the entire nation. Given the circumstances, the Assam People’sWelfare Association toned down the celebrations on January 18 at Noida.
Instead, they called it Magh Bihu, For A Cause, paying tribute to the Assamese citizens – Sam Stafford, Dipanjal Das, Iswar Nayak, Abdul Amin and Bijendra Panging – who lost their lives in the protests demanding the rollback of CAA.
Geetartha Darshan Baruah, President, Assam People’s Welfare Association, said, “Five people have lost their lives during the protest. The youngest one Sam Stafford was just 16. He was a budding artist. We dedicated the evening to him with four of his family members flying down to attend the event. We have also offered one of his family members a job in a private organisation back in Guwahati at a salary of Rs 25,000.”
The renowned singer from Assam, Rupam Bhuyan and his group, Northeast Breeze, flew down to Delhi to honour the memory of Stafford and others through their songs. “We performed a couple of songs that highlighted the ongoing protest against CAA and a few folk songs.
When CAA was still a bill, we wrote the song Aah Aah Olai Aah [Come All] protesting against the amendment. We performed this song along with Moh Kheda which talks about illegal immigration in Assam and the Northeast,” Bhuyan informed.
The highlight of the show was Pawe Pori Hori, a Borgeet composed by the late Mahapurusha Srimanta Sankaradeva, a multi-dimensional genius, who transformed and modernised Assamese society with his egalitarian ideology.
“The song pays homage to the departed souls, and Pawe Pori Hori was our way of paying tribute to Sam,” added Bhuyan.