Guwahati: Priyanka Gandhi releases ‘people’s charge sheet against BJP government’

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: On the first day of her two-day visit to Assam, AICC general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, who is the chairperson of the screening committee of the party for Assam, released a 20-point ‘people’s charge sheet against the BJP government in Assam’ at Manabendra Sharma Complex in Guwahati.

She held a series of meetings with members of the political affairs committee and the screening committee of the party, besides party MLAs, MPs, district presidents, and block-level leaders. She reviewed organizational preparedness and fast-track candidate selection for the 2026 Assam Assembly elections. She appealed to all to take a pledge to topple the BJP from power in Assam for a change. She is on a marathon spree of holding meetings that continued until midnight. She will also hold such meetings on Friday as well.

The AICC general secretary arrived at the Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International (LGBI) Airport around 10 in the morning. APCC president Gaurav Gogoi, Leader of Opposition Debabrata Saikia, Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, and former Chattishgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel and others received her at the airport. Party workers lined the route from the airport onwards, raising slogans and welcoming her with flags and placards.

She visited the Kamakhya Temple and offered prayers. Briefly speaking to reporters, she said she had come to seek blessings and would not discuss politics on the temple premises.

In brief interactions with the media, she said, “We are meeting everyone and taking their suggestions. After getting complete feedback, our effort will be to distribute tickets properly and contest the elections strongly.” On the possibility of alliances with regional parties, she said, “Wait and watch.”

The ‘people’s charge sheet against the BJP government in Assam’ comprises charges like (i) institutionalization of a “syndicate raj” and the creation of a parallel slush-money economy in Assam, (ii) rampant corruption and accumulation of illegal wealth by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, his close ministers, and their family members, (iii) rising public debt, irresponsible governance, and financial mismanagement, (iv) failure to grant Scheduled Tribe status to the six communities, (v) corporate expansionism through the handing over of indigenous land and resources, (vi) sabotage of the Assam Accord (1985) and deliberate non-implementation of Clause 6, which guarantees protection of Assamese identity, (vii) stalling of the NRC process and continued fear-mongering among communities through official channels, (viii) failure to have floods and riverbank erosion declared a national disaster, (ix) failure to generate new employment, with partial filling of vacancies projected as “job creation”, effectively turning Assam into a labour-exporting state, (x) weakening of public education and denial of quality educational opportunities to children from poor families, (xi) failure in public healthcare, (xii) non-implementation of long-promised daily ware of Rs 351 for tea garden workers, (xiii) bulldozer justice and selective evictions targeting minorities, (xiv) undermining constitutional governance through alleged draconian policing and encounters, (xv) failure to protect women and children from violence, sexual crimes, and trafficking, (xvi) environmental corruption, with natural resources allegedly handed over to mining and forest mafias, (xvii) alarming rise of the drug menace, with occasional seizures used for publicity rather than systemic solutions, (xviii) government complicity in illegal rat-hole mining, (xix) failure of urban planning, resulting in waste mismanagement, sewage overflow, and recurring urban floods, and (xx) suppression of freedom of speech and subversion of the fourth pillar of democracy.

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