On an unseasonably warm mid-March afternoon, the All Moran Students’ Union’s newly-elected president Naba Moran recounted a story when we m...
On an unseasonably warm mid-March afternoon, the All Moran Students’ Union’s newly-elected president Naba Moran recounted a story when we met at the outfit’s headquarters in a leafy neighbourhood on the outskirts of Upper Assam’s Tinsukia town.
Moran had been recently summoned to Guwahati by two senior Congress leaders, apparently to discuss the upcoming elections. The duo had a question for Moran: “What is this closeness to the BJP [Bharatiya Janata Party] all about? What is it that we lack?”
“I openly told them,” Moran recalled. “It is not like the BJP has solved all our problems, but it is just that at least there is now an atmosphere to talk, to exchange two words. But that gap was so big during the Congress regime, it was humiliating.”
A saffron romance (with a few tiffs)
The All Moran Students’ Union represents Assam’s ethnic Moran community who live primarily in the state’s easternmost district of Tinsukia. According to local estimates, the community’s over 1.2 lakh voters play a crucial role in all five constituencies in the district.
The outfit has significant sway over them. “We are a small community with very few IAS, IPS, or other high-ranking officials,” explained Moran, referring to the Indian Administrative and Police Services....
