More than five centuries after saint-reformer, Srimanta Sankaradeva created Bhaona, a dramatic form of entertainment to convey spiritualism in the Vaishnav mould, the Congress in poll-bound Assam has tweaked it for a political statement against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and National Register of Citizens (NRC).
On Monday, the party released its first “video advertisement” to bombard viewers with a message against the “anti-people” CAA and “discriminatory” NRC.
The Congress claimed that the video, aired across social media platforms, has been trending with more than one million views within hours of being released. The political Bhaona uses music and the Brajavali language that Sankaradeva developed, and his disciples popularised from the Vaishnav monasteries.
It underlines Congress’s commitment to encouraging people to raise their voice against injustice and provide relief at the grassroots by scrapping CAA. The song affirms the party’s pledge to defeat all evil and communal forces.
Nullifying CAA is among the Congress’s five guarantees that party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra announced a few days ago. The CAA, which seeks to protect non-Muslims who entered India from three neighbouring countries till December 31, 2014, is in conflict with the Assam Accord.
The Accord, signed in 1985 by the Rajiv Gandhi government at the end of the violent six-year Assam Agitation prescribes the detection and deportation of all immigrants, irrespective of faith, who entered Assam after the midnight of March 24, 1971.
The NRC of 1951 was updated in the State based on this cut-off date. The final draft published in August 2019 excluded 19.06 lakh people out of 3.3 crore applicants.
The anti-CAA movement had led to the birth of two political parties — Assam Jatiya Parishad and Raijor Dal — in 2020. The two parties are contesting this election together.
