File picture of Nellie

Nov. 10: A seminar on the 1983 Nellie massacre was called off by the state government minutes before its commencement today, as a ?preventive measure?.

The Centre for Northeast India, South and Southeast Asia Studies of the Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change and Development was to organise the seminar from 3 pm. At 2.30 pm, Dispur intervened and directed the institute not to hold the seminar on the subject without consulting the state government.

Home commissioner and secretary B.M. Mazumdar in a letter to the director of the institute, Abu Ahmed, urged him not to hold the seminar without ?consulting? Dispur. The letter, however, did not cite any reason for the same.

?It is learnt that Omeo Kumar Das Institute of Social Change is organising a seminar on the topic ? Memories of a Massacre: Competing Narratives on 1983 Nellie Incident on 10.11.04. You are requested not to hold the seminar without consultation of the state government,? the home department in a brief letter said.

Mazumdar said the decision was taken as a preventive measure to block any communal flare-up. He said the department had learnt from intelligence sources that the seminar might create tension.

He clarified that it did not ask the institute to put off the seminar. ?The Nellie massacre is a sensitive subject and the OKD Institute receives all financial grants from the state government. So we thought it is imperative for the government to examine the pros and cons before holding any discussion on such a sensitive subject,? he added. Sanjib Baruah of the centre said that a discussion on how various people recall the massacre would not have harmed anybody.

Over 1,800 people were massacred on February 18, 1983, at Nellie in Morigaon district at the peak of the anti-foreigner movement in the state.

He said the aim of the paper to be submitted by a Japanese researcher, Makiko Kimura, in the seminar was to analyse three different narratives of the cause of the Nellie massacre. He said by asking the institute not to hold the seminar just 30 minutes before its commencement, the government did not give any time to it for consultation.

?How can I have consultation with the government on the subject within those few minutes?? he asked, adding that the institute has decided to cancel the seminar as the speaker would not be able to come again for the same.

Kimura, who had extensively visited Nellie during her research on the subject since 2001, said she was surprised by the decision.