Infighting may cost Cong in Assam
The infighting within the rank and file of the ruling Congress has come to open with PCC chief Bhuwneswar Kalita revoking the suspension of former education minister Ripun Bora, a week after Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi announced that former education minister Bora, who was caught red-handed in his attempt to bribe a CBI officer in New Delhi, would not be given party ticket.
The ongoing cold war among the Congress leaders also came to light when Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi deviated from the party line and created serious embarrassment for in-charge general secretary Digvijay Singh by adopting the line of the BJP over the issue of Hindu migrants.
The AICC general secretary, who was also in the Barrak Valley a week before Mr Gogoi visited on Sunday, had criticised the BJP for making difference between Hindu and Muslim migrants and advocating to treat Hindus as refugees. Mr Singh had said, “If a Hindu from Bangladesh comes to India after a stipulated time-frame he also should be treated as an infiltrator or a foreigner. There’s no constitutional provision to treat Hindus coming from Bangladesh and Pakistan as refugees.”
In an attempt to appease Hindu Bengalis chief minister, however, deviated from the party line and pointed out that the Congress likes to believe that there’s a difference between refugees and foreigners. “The Congress has sympathy for those Hindus coming from Bangladesh under certain circumstances,” the chief minister said. Widening differences between the party and the government has also forced president of Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress Sharifa Begum to lodge a formal complaints to party high command Sonia Gandhi against the Congress ministers sharing dais with expelled AGP leaders to demoralise her supporters in central Assam’s Nagaon district where she intends to contest elections.
The infighting at the grassroots level is more worrying as it turned violent during the visit of party observers to select candidates for the elections. Veteran Congress leaders acting as backbone of the party are not only concerned over the growing communication gap between the party and the government but also with alliance partners as the PCC chief has threatened to put candidates in Bodoland Territorial Council area also as its alliance partner Bodoland People’s Front has decided to nominate agriculture minister Parmilla Rani Brahma against Congress minister Akan Bora from Dispur, outside the BTC.
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