Eastern Mirror editor confers Dr Hazarika Award to Bodo artist

Our Staff Reporter GOLAGHAT, NOVEMBER 6 It was quite befitting that Dr Bhupen Hazarika Harmony Award 2014 was presented to renowned 60-year-old Bodo artist Rabiram Boro at a glittering function in Golaghat town of Assam on November 5. It was more so because the award was given to a person from Bodoland area in Assam. The Bodos are demanding separation from Assam. The award was conferred to Boro by Witobou Newmai, Editor, Eastern Mirror. Newmai was specially invited to confer the award to Boro to also send across the message of harmony and the spirit of common brotherhood of the people of Assam and the Nagas that have of late witnessed a lot of conflicts in border areas leading even to loss of many precious lives on both sides of the border. The award-giving ceremony was organized by Dr Bhupen Hazarika Memorial Committee, Golaghat and All Golaghat District Students Union, a unit of All Assam Students Union (AASU). Dr Bhupen Hazarika Harmony Award was instituted in 2013 one after the “music maestro” and the “legendary balladeer” passed away on November 5, 2011. Conferring the award, Newmai described late Dr Hazarika, the legendary singer and composer of Assam as a symbol of peace and communal harmony. Late Dr Bhupen Hazarika’s brothers Samar Hazarika and Balen Hazarika, both renowned singers of Assam, besides the Deputy Commissioner of Golaghat, representatives of AASU, social workers, elders, students etc. were in attendance on the occasion. Various speakers at the programme made a clarion call to cherish and follow the noble ideals of Dr Hazarika while describing him not as a person but an institution who has had huge impact in the socio-cultural-political space of a huge geographic region of the North East and other parts of India. They said the cultural icon and a relentless crusader for social harmony all through his life tried to fight the evils that threatened or disrupted harmony between different religious, racial, language or rational grounds of castes and communities. The genius of Dr. Bhupen Hazarika will live on through his songs, and in the hearts of his fans.