Himanta engineered mob, should be arrested: Dutta

By our Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI, Dec 29: Hurling abuses, that too, at women has made the politicking in Assam quite distasteful. It reminds the people of the State what Rold Reagan aptly said: “Politics is the second oldest profession. I have learned that it bears a striking resemblance to the first”.

Talking to newsmen on the ‘street drama’ which the Congress and the BJP workers were engaged in on the GS Road in Guwahati yesterday and its follow-up war of words between leaders of the two parties in a section of television channels in Guwahati, Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) president Anjan Dutta squarely blamed it on BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma for ‘engineering the ruckus involving the workers of the two parties in front of Rajiv Bhavan yesterday’. “Sarma did ask one of the BJP workers if they found Deka in his residence or not yesterday. He also asked them move to Rajiv Bhavan.”  

Dutta said: “Sarma and State BJP president Sarbanda Sonowal pretend to be innocent just to make it to Dispur, but they aren’t sacred cows. Both of them are responsible for secret killings in the State. Sarma has many allegations against him. Even though the court has given him clean chit, he is yet to get such a clean chit from the people of the State who still doubt him. He did make a huge fortune while in the Congress. If one examines the amount of tax he paid in 2001 and the amount he pays now, the size of the fortune he had during the period can be easily assessed.”

Taking seriously Sarma’s statement against Nilomonisen Deka that ‘it needs to be researched if he was born of a mother’s womb or not’, Dutta said: “We want an abject apology from Sarma for this statement that’s no less than hurling insults at women. If the BJP is honest, it should expel Sarma from the party for his comment against women. We’ve discussed the issue of Nilomonisen Deka in the party. He has already tendered an apology. Himanta Biswa Sarma should also follow suit. He should come clear on what research he wants to do?”

According to Dutta, the BJP in Assam wants to make the situation tense in order to force the police to resort to firing and killing of BJP workers. “They want such a situation that can make their route to Dispur a cakewalk by riding on a sympathy wave,” Dutta said, and added: “The BJP is known as a liar party the world over. It’s out to divide the electorate on commul lines. As many as 25 Congressmen were injured, seven of them seriously, in the scuffle in front of Rajiv Bhavan yesterday. However, the BJP has filed a false case against us in Bhangagarh police station in connection with the scuffle.”

Dutta said that the Congress was going to stage a sit-in from 11 am to 1 pm in Guwahati and other district and subdivisiol headquarters tomorrow in support of their demand for the arrest and stopping the BJP goons in the State. Meanwhile, the leaders of the Assam Pradesh Youth Congress (APYC) warned the BJP not to take any such misadventure in the future. “They’ll have to suffer for every drop of blood the Congress workers had to shed yesterday. We heard of such goondaraj in Gujarat, and now it is happening in Assam as well,” the Youth Congress leaders said. Meanwhile, leaders of the Assam Pradesh Mahila Congress asked Himanta Biswa Sarma back as to from which mother he was born. “Such a statement has made the mothers of the State hang their heads in shame. He should desist from making such comments in the future,” they said.