Kamal Ghorui
SIVASAGAR/NORTH LAKHIMPUR: Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday alleged that Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi does not have any responsibility towards the state and asserted that the opposition has no stand on any issue ahead of the Assembly elections.“He (Gogoi) comes like a tourist. He does not have any responsibility towards Assam. He has been announcing to make a greater Assam. What is the primary condition of making a greater Assam?” he told reporters on the sidelines of official programmes.
Gogoi is a Lok Sabha MP from Jorhat constituency and is also the deputy leader of Congress in the Lok Sabha.“He (Gogoi) should first make his children Assamese. How can he even pronounce the word greater Assam when his own children are not Assamese?” Sarma said.The BJP leader has been continuously criticising the Assam Congress president over the citizenship of Gogoi’s wife and two children, saying that three out of four in the family are British citizens.Carrying on with the tirade, Sarma said, “Who will live in his (Gogoi’s) greater Assam? Only the Miyas will live. That is why nobody should pay any attention to this man’s statements and I don’t think we should discuss him seriously.”‘Miya’ is originally a pejorative term used for Bengali-speaking Muslims in Assam and the non-Bengali speaking people generally identify them as Bangladeshi immigrants. In recent years, activists from the community have started adopting this term as a gesture of defiance.“Gaurav Gogoi would not be able to tell the names of the constituencies from Tinsukia to Golaghat. The Upper Assam as we understand, there are not 50 seats,” Sarma said while reacting to the Congress leader’s claim that the opposition will win 50 seats in the coming assembly polls.The Assam assembly elections to 126 constituencies are likely to take place in March-April this year.Asked about Gogoi’s criticism of Sarma as “Hindu Jinnah”, the CM said, “Jinnah is from Pakistan. Why does he bring in items from Pakistan, he could have given examples from other places also. There are people in India too. I cannot comment on an example from Pakistan as I have never visited that country.”The Assam CM and the BJP have been attacking Gogoi over his wife’s alleged connection with Pakistan’s spy agency ISI. They even claim that the Congress leader has “direct links” with the neighbouring nation.Talking about the upcoming assembly elections, Sarma said: “I don’t think the opposition or Congress have any stand on any issue. Only one community supports Congress. I don’t think the opposition will have any specific impact this time.”“I have so far attended 80 meetings. I can understand the people’s pulse. This time, the Congress will have a very bad situation,” he added.Sarma also criticised leader of the opposition Debabrata Saikia and Raijor Dal MLA Akhil Gogoi, and said that they will have no influence during the forthcoming polls.
