The Congress on Monday (February 24, 2025) demanded answers from Prime Minister Narendra Modi over alleged corruption under the Himanta Biswa Sarma dispensation in Assam and asserted that the “double dhokha (betrayal) government” will be held accountable for its “sins” in the Assembly polls next year.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge said Mr. Modi has set up a “factory of jumlas” in Assam, whose mastermind is the most corrupt Chief Minister of the BJP.
“Recently, Congress leaders in Assam have been attacked both ways – politically and physically! The public will respond to these attacks by forming a Congress government after one year,” Mr. Kharge said in a post on X.
The State of Assam is suffering the consequences of corruption, hatred and misgovernance by the “land mafia of the BJP”, he alleged.
“The unemployment of the youth, the helplessness of the tea garden workers, the rebuke of the Hon’ble Supreme Court on the issue of illegal foreigners and the hypocrisy of the BJP are well known.”
“The state has lagged behind on every scale of development and economically. 3.5 crore people of Assam are extremely angry, no slogan of Modi ji can cool their anger now. Change is certain in Assam and the North-East,” he asserted.
Addressing a press conference ahead of Prime Minister Modi’s visit to Assam, Congress general secretary in-charge of party affairs in the State, Jitendra Singh, said what magic lamp did Modi give to the Assam Chief Minister that he [Sarma] became a business tycoon.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma has built an entire empire in Assam. The Chief Minister of Assam owns many tea gardens, news portals, a big outlet of McDonald’s, international schools and lots of lands. A lot of land has been purchased in tribal areas including Majuli, Kamrup, Guwahati, Nagaon, Golaghat, where land cannot be purchased,” he said at the presser also addressed by Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah, Gaurav Gogoi, Pradyut Bordoloi, Pawan Khera, among others.
Mr. Singh also alleged that rat-hole mining was happening under the nose of Assam CM.
If all this is happening, then are Narendra Modi’s agencies investigating, he asked.
State Congress chief Borah said Assam Tribal Students Organization has asked three questions to PM Modi today.
During the 2014 Lok Sabha elections, Mr. Modi had promised that the daily wage of 11 lakh tea workers of Assam would be increased to ₹351 but today this wage is ₹250 and ₹220, Borah said.
“Narendra Modi had promised that six communities of Assam will be given ST status within 100 days. This promise has not been fulfilled till date. Rat-hole mining is illegal in Assam, but it still continues in many places.”
“So the question is: under whose leadership is illegal rat-hole mining taking place in Assam? When will there be an investigation into illegal rat-hole mining, when will the CM take action?” he said.
Borah said he was attacked a few days ago, but no one has been arrested till date. “Congress MP Rakibul Hussain was also attacked two days ago. Jungle Raj is being created in Assam, does Narendra Modi have tacit consent in this? The people of Assam want to know this,” he said.
Khera said those who think that they will scare the people of Congress party with the help of police and their system, it is their misunderstanding.
“The BJP tried to intimidate many of our leaders, but you will not see even a trace of fear on our faces. We are not the ones to get scared. We will ask questions every day. We will not let BJP sit in peace until the elections are over. They will be able to sit in peace after the elections because then they will be in the opposition,” he said, alluding to the Assembly polls next year.
Mr. Gogoi claimed the whole country knows that the BJP is a “factory of slogans”.
“If Narendra Modi is the head of the slogan factory, then Himanta Biswa Sarma is the regional manager of this factory. PM Modi says – ‘Neither will I eat nor will I let others eat’, but in Assam the CM’s family has eaten up lands in every district. Narendra Modi calls himself a fakir [saint], but around him there is a crowd of people who are continuously progressing,” he said.
In a joint statement, Singh, Gogoi, Borah, Bordoloi, Khera, Debabrata Saikia, and Rakibul Hussain posed several questions to PM Modi.
Who is responsible for the massive “corruption, scandals and scams”, including land grabs in Assam, they asked.
Why is Assam’s youth unemployment rate among the highest in the country and why has BJP destroyed the future of Assamese youth, they asked.
“Why has the BJP not able to fulfil a single promise made to the people of Assam in their 2016 Vision document, which were supposed to be fulfilled by 2025? Why has the BJP completely failed in ensuring Law and Order in Assam? Why are the police being politicized? Why are only political opponents targeted? Why has the CM made Casteist and Communal statements?” the Congress leaders said in the statement.
Why has the BJP failed to uphold the Assam Accord and who is responsible for “hypocrisy” on the issue of illegal immigration and deportation of illegal foreigners, they asked.
Assam is in a deep crisis under the BJP, they claimed.
“It is time to make the double dhokha government accountable for their sins,” the joint statement said.
Published – February 24, 2025 05:54 pm IST