By Sukrita Baruah / Indian Express

The Bajrang Dal is not associated in any way with the Bharatiya Janata Party or the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said on Monday while responding in the state legislative assembly to an adjournment motion on arms training during a Bajrang Dal camp in the state earlier this year.

Monday was the first day of the autumn session of the Assam State Legislative Assembly, which is also the first session to be held in the newly inaugurated legislative assembly building. Stating that Opposition MLAs would stage a walkout if their adjournment motions would not be accepted, and that he did not want the first session in the building to begin with a walkout, Sarma had requested Speaker Biswajit Daimary to accept all adjournment motions.

Apart from the adjournment motion on the arms training by the Bajrang Dal, Speaker Daimary also accepted adjournment motions on power supply issues in the state and on the risks to river embankments.

Following a video in July of showing young men receiving arms training in a school in Assam’s Mangaldai town, the Assam police had registered an FIR against organisers from the Bajrang Dal under sections pertaining to promoting enmity between different groups and common intention.

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