Guwahati: Arunachal Pradesh deputy chief minister Chowna Mein has been conferred the prestigious Lachit Borphukan Award for 2022 in recognition of his selfless contributions to the welfare and uplift of society and for the promotion and preservation of the Tai culture.
The award was presented to Mein by the Tai-Ahom Yuba Parishad at a function organised by the Parishad at the Srimanta Sankaradeva Kalakshetra here on Thursday.
Receiving the award, Mein thanked the Parishad for the recognition. He lauded the Assam government for organising the event in Assam and also in Delhi, thereby making people across the nation recognise and know about the valiant hero of Assam who led the Ahom army in defeating the mighty Mughals in the decisive battle of Saraighat (1671) and the battle of Itakhuli (1682).
He said Lachit Borphukan should be recognised as a national war hero, as he was a unifying force and prevented the Mughals from occupying Assam and the rest of the Northeast.
The defeat in the battles of Saraighat and Itakhuli weakened the Mughals and put paid to their plans to expand to Southeast Asian countries and Tibet, Mein said.
“We read more about Mughal history than our own history. It is high time to include the history of the Northeast in the CBSE syllabus so that our children know about our past,” he added.
Mein further advocated cultural exchange programmes and symposiums for all the ethnic groups of the Northeast and Southeast Asian countries in Guwahati, the gateway to the region, for strengthening the people-to-people contact and also for the creation of a Tai tourist circuit in the Northeast to attract people from the Southeast Asian countries.
He called upon the young generations to maintain the age-old cordial relations between the people of Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
Among others, Guwahati Police commissioner Harmeet Singh, retired Advocate General Ramesh Borpatra Gohain, Partha joint commissioner (Kamrup Metro) Sarathi Mahanta, Padma Shri awardee Jogendra Nath Phukan, IIT professor Laboinya Kishore, Tai-Ahom Yuba Parishad president Dilip Gogoi and event organising committee president Dulal Gohain were present on occasion.
Also read: Efforts on to include Arunachal history in NCERT books: Mein
