Silchar: BJP MP Nishikant Dubey on Monday launched a sharp attack on the Congress, alleging that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Congress-led Assam government had conspired to “fragment” Assam during the language movement of the 1960s.

In a post on X on the occasion of Language Martyrs’ Day, Dubey claimed that the Congress government tried to create divisions between Assamese and Bengali-speaking people at a time when the country was also facing the looming threat from China.

Calling it a “dark chapter” in the history of the Congress, Dubey referred to the police firing on May 19, 1961, in Silchar, where 11 Bengali language protesters were killed during demonstrations demanding recognition of Bengali as an official language in the Barak Valley.

The BJP MP alleged that the Congress government had imposed Assamese as the compulsory language for education, administration and government jobs in 1960, which triggered widespread protests among Bengali-speaking residents of the Barak Valley.

Dubey further stated that the language movement and the police firing remained a painful reminder of the alleged failures of the Congress leadership during that period.