BJP will get historic mandate in Assam this time: Jay Panda

The BJP is looking to defend its 10 years at the helm of affairs in Assam, with its attendant issues and some inevitable anti-incumbency. How are you looking at the contest?

I disagree on anti-incumbency. On the contrary, there is a huge pro-incumbency. Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi has given an extreme focus to Assam and the Northeast, throughout his tenure as PM visiting the State 77 times. Compare that with his predecessor, [Dr. Manmohan Singh] who was actually technically representing Assam [as Rajya Sabha MP] but made only 10 visits in a similar time frame. This has translated to massive changes. The Railways have been giving five times the budget [allocation] from earlier, the number of bridges on the Brahmaputra have gone up hugely. The number of medical colleges in Assam, there were only six [earlier], today we have 15 operational. Another six are under construction and another 10 are at a planning stage.

Another aspect is security. So before 2016, for many decades, Assam was known for its violence, for militancy, for lack of basic safety and security and as a result, lack of investment. There has again been a complete transformation. Home Minister Amit Shah has pushed through a Bodo Accord which has been implemented. Similarly, accords with other communities [have also been done]. So, thousands of militants have laid down their arms as a result. One statistic which I think is worth bringing to their attention — Assam has become, for the last few years, the fastest growing State economy within India. If you take the State’s average GDP growth rate, Assam is almost 50% higher than the national average.

So our slogan, this time is ‘Surakshit Assam, Viksit Assam’ (Safe Assam, Developed Assam) and you can see the response of the people.

This slogan actually brings me to another slogan that was floated in 2016, which was ‘Khilonjia Sarkar’, about indigenous communities and the indigenous identity of Assam. But over the last few years, we have seen a very sharp turn to hard Hindutva. How do you reconcile that?

The focus on the indigenous communities of Assam remains. So, that is why I gave you an example of the Bodo Accord. You’ve had other similar accords with other communities.

But what do you make of the rhetoric, especially Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s comments and social media posts of BJP Assam?

Different people have different ways of communicating. But if you leave aside the rhetoric and go to the crux of the issue, it shows the Chief Minister strictly imposing the law, unfortunately leading to talk of polarisation. Two examples of this strict imposition of the law is with regard to a crackdown on child marriage and removal of land encroachments. Child marriage is not permitted in our Constitution, it was being tolerated by the previous Congress regimes. Unfortunately, child marriage prevalence is far higher in certain communities, compared to the overall population. Now, Congress and some people are reacting, saying this is Hindutva, which it is not. It is the implementation of the law.

Similarly, another such action which is yielding this kind of talk is the eviction of land grabbers. Now, thousands of acres have been freed up by strict enforcement. With perhaps some exceptions, most encroachers are illegal immigrants, encroaching forest and government land, and the land surrounding the Namghars and the sattras, the religio-cultural centres of Assamese culture. And this is something that the Assamese people are extremely in tune with, and the CM is in tune with the sentiment of the Assamese people.

At the time of the partition of India, we have only 11% of the demographic you are referring to, now it is up to 38%, not through natural means, but through illegal immigration. The illegal immigration has happened in the lakhs over more than seven decades, tolerated and facilitated by the previous governments due to vote bank politics. Now, the BJP-led NDA government and the very blunt Chief Minister has cracked down, imposed the law. So, these are the kind of actions that has led to this accusation of polarisation. Now, the CM may be blunt, but perhaps I can put it in sweeter words that people who break the law with such impunity should be afraid.

There are accusations that there has been a flood of entrants from the Congress, and that the Chief Minister is casting the State BJP in his own image?

This kind of talk is coming about because recently a few high-profile Congress people have joined us, like former Assam Congress chief Bhupen Borah, and Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi.

It shows that the Congress is imploding and is in complete disarray, with many more wanting to join the BJP. We have, however, been very selective. If you look at the tickets that have been given out, the vast majority have been people who have been in the BJP from the beginning, or who have been in the BJP for at least 10 years thus helping the party grow. We have three Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) leaders and the Mahila Morcha president who have got tickets. Only two or three late entrants have been given tickets.

There is a widespread feeling that the Ahoms of upper Assam, have a bit of resentment because they have been out of power now as a community for 10 years. With Congress tying up with the Raijor Dal, will it be an issue for the BJP?

First of all, Assam is one of the most diverse societies anywhere in the world, and including India. Now, the Ahoms have a very special place in Assam, because of the heritage, because they were rulers of Assam for a very long time, and they are very important to the BJP as well. So, this is a narrative that the Congress is trying to spin because they think they have only two bastions left — minorities and the Ahoms.

But the Ahom representation in the BJP is also strong, we have Pabitra Margherita, a Central Minister; we have recently sent Jogen Mohan, a State Minister, as Rajya Sabha MP, and we have upcoming young Ahom leaders like Taranga Gogoi and Tapan Gogoi, among others.

We are looking at a historic mandate for the BJP, far higher than what we won the last time as this time the Opposition is not as united as they were in 2021.

There was a lot of controversy about the circumstances around singer Zubeen Garg’s death with many pointing fingers at the management team around him which was also said to be close to the Chief Minister. Is that going to be a factor in these elections?

What happened to Zubeen Garg was a terrible tragedy, he was an icon, loved by all. So, the Singapore authorities are conducting their own investigation, with some people here trying to spin it in India with totally distorted facts. The real facts are that the Assam government has cracked down on the people against whom those allegations were made. It is farfetched that they were involved in any way with the Assam government or with Assam’s leadership. They’re in jail and have been for months.

In fact, based on the demands of the family, the Assam government made a request to the Guwahati High Court for day-to-day hearings in the case, which was accepted by the high court. The issue is well understood by the people now, that it was a deliberate attempt to bring politics into a tragedy.