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Himanta Sarma is a fundamentalist & a dangerous new convert: Ex-Assam CM Tarun Gogoi

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Gogoi slams BJP minister Himanta Sarma for backing Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, says legislation unnecessarily disturbing Assam’s identity and culture.

New Delhi: Three-time Assam chief minister and Congress veteran Tarun Gogoi has termed senior BJP minister in Assam Himanta Biswa Sarma as a “new convert to communalism and a fundamentalist”, in a stinging censure of his former party colleague over his support to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

“Everyone knows how Himanta Biswa Sarma has communalised it (the situation in Assam). He wants Assam to be divided along communal lines,” Gogoi told ThePrint in an exclusive interview.

“When he was in the Congress, he was secular but today he has become a fundamentalist and communal. He talks about Jinnahs and Muslims all the time. New converts are always dangerous.”

The former chief minister further accused Sarma of wanting “to prove that he is more loyal to Amit Shah and Mohan Bhagwat than even the original RSS people”.

Assam has been on the boil over the issue of the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, which seeks to grant citizenship to non-Muslim refugees from three countries — Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh.

The bill, passed by Lok Sabha in the recent winter session, comes at a time when Assam is in the midst of updating its National Register of Citizens to identify those who have allegedly illegally immigrated from Bangladesh.

Sarma, a minister with several portfolios in the state, has spearheaded the BJP’s efforts with respect to the bill in the state, making controversial statements such as claiming that without the legislation, several regions of Assam will “go to Jinnahs”.

Sarma was once Gogoi’s right-hand man but quit the Congress to join the BJP in 2015 owing to differences with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and the party’s state leadership.

‘Assam is burning’

Talking about the current situation in Assam, where the ethnic Assamese is protesting against the bill, Gogoi said “the bill is unnecessarily disturbing our identity and culture”.

“Assam is burning. The situation is going from bad to worse,” he said. “The bill is against the very basic principle of our secularism.”

“Their (BJP) record (on religion) has been playing. They are openly saying that so many states have become Muslim-majority, so now we need Hindus,” Gogoi said. “They don’t talk about Assamese, they talk about Hindus. They want to convert the state from regional Assamese to Hindutva.”

He added that there was “no justification for the bill, given that even our states are based on linguistic lines and not on religious ones”.


Also read: We deported more infiltrators than BJP, says former Congress CM Tarun Gogoi


Electoral impact

Gogoi has expressed confidence that the Congress would “more than double its seats in the state in the coming Lok Sabha polls”.

Assam sends 14 MPs to the Lok Sabha, of which BJP had won seven and Congress only three in the 2014 polls. The All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) and an independent won the remaining seats.

“The BJP feels they will benefit from this bill, but according to me, they won’t. People are agitating,” Gogoi said. “If the BJP had support, why would people be on the streets? The bill isn’t acceptable to the people, so how will BJP win in a democracy? Unless, of course, they tamper with the EVMs.

“Indian people are not so communal, and particularly people of Assam are not,” he added.

With the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) breaking ties with the BJP over the bill, the former Assam CM has said his party’s “doors are open for everyone, except the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF), which is communal”.

Priyanka’s entry a boost

Talking about Priyanka Gandhi Vadra’s surprise formal entry into politics Wednesday, Gogoi said he is the “happiest man” and that this “should have come much earlier”.

“It will definitely give a much-needed boost,” he said. “Today, I am the happiest man. I know the family. I worked with Indiraji, Sanjayji, Rajivji, Sonia and Rahul. It will help us no doubt, it should have come much earlier.”


Also read: NRC creates confusion, doubts among people; BJP playing divisive politics: Tarun Gogoi


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5 COMMENTS

  1. What bakwas gogoi sir. Hemant is s courageous leader. We should keep 1951 as base date. Whole world is threatened by Muslim fanatics like isis al quaida. In district like dhubri barpeta nagaon Muslim immigrant have become rightful citizen due to 1971 cut off.

  2. Himanta Biswa Sarma would still have been in the Congress if Mr Gogoi had allowed him to grow to the natural leadership position to which he aspired, not tried to pass it on to his son. Communalism is bad, of course, but so is parochialism. If the north east is to develop and prosper, it must ease up on its exclusivity and aversion to “ outsiders “ from the “ mainland “.

    • Right mate, Himanta is evil but Gogoi is Devil. I still wonder how this jocker manned the CM’s chair for 15 long years. His only aim is to secure the future of his Hijda of a son. All his concerns for Assam and Assamese is nonsense.

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