GUWAHATI: An Assam MLA has courted controversy by assaulting an employee of the state government at the Secretariat, the state’s seat of power.
The incident riled the All Assam Govt NPS Employees' Association (employees’ body) so much that it decided to reject the MLA, Jayanta Basumatary, who is from the United People’s Party Liberal (UPPL). It also made an appeal to the voters of Sidli constituency not to re-elect the “impolite” Basumatary again.
The UPPL is an ally of the BJP and a component of the state’s three-party ruling coalition.
The incident occurred on Wednesday afternoon when the MLA visited the Secretariat to meet Transport secretary Adil Khan. He lost his cool and slapped junior assistant, Bibhuti Bhattacharya, after the latter had asked him to fill up the visitors’ slip before letting him in.
“I couldn’t recognise him and requested him to fill up the visitors’ slip. He identified himself and said an MLA is not required to do this formality. I said this is the government protocol but he got angry and slapped me,” the victim told journalists.
After he had lodged a written complaint with the employees’ union, the employees staged a protest outside the Secretariat demanding action against the MLA. They also decided not to cooperate with him and rejected him.
“We don’t want an MLA, who does not have the basic manners, to come to the Secretariat. We appeal to the voters of Sidli not to make such a person an MLA again,” the employees’ union said.
“If an employee is not safe at the Secretariat, he cannot be safe anywhere. He was assaulted for performing his duties sincerely. We appeal to the Chief Minister (Himanta Biswa Sarma) and the Chief Secretary (Jishnu Baruah) to give us justice. We will not relent,” the union said.
According to it, the victim has a hearing impairment in one ear and he was hit on the other.
UPPL president Pramod Bodo apologized for the incident.
“I have known him (Basumatary) for 25 years. He is a cool-headed person. I don’t know why it has happened. I apologize for the incident,” Bodo, who is also the chief of the Bodoland Territorial Region, told this newspaper.