Fast justice for Zubeen Garg among five Congress guarantees for Assam

GUWAHATI

Fast justice for Zubeen Garg, the late cultural icon, was among five guarantees the Congress rolled out for poll-bound Assam on Sunday (March 29, 2026).

Addressing an election rally at Nowboicha in northeastern Assam’s Lakhimpur district, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge promised justice for Garg within 100 days if voted to power.

“We will find out who murdered him and present the findings within the specified time,” he said, insisting that the Congress guarantees were unconditional, unlike those of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The probe into the 52-year-old Garg’s death while swimming off an island in Singapore on September 19, 2025, has been an election issue. Seven persons, including his manager Siddharth Sharma and event organiser Shaymkanu Mahanta, have been in judicial custody in connection with the singer-composer’s death.

While Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma claimed Garg was murdered as part of a conspiracy, a Singapore coroner’s court ruled that he had drowned accidentally.

Announcing the other guarantees, Mr. Kharge said Congress would provide ₹50,000 to women to start or grow businesses, apart from monthly cash transfers, and ₹1,250 as a pension to senior citizens. The other guarantees are ₹25 lakh cashless health cover for every family and land rights for 10 lakh indigenous people.

He said that the party implemented the cashless health cover in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Rajasthan, and Telangana.

Mr. Kharge attacked the Chief Minister, saying he “fled” to the BJP to save his skin.

“He [Mr. Sarma] was in the Tarun Gogoi Ministry for many years, and fled one day by stabbing Congress in its back. Did he leave for your welfare or to maintain peace in Assam? He fled to save himself,” he said.

“Later, he betrayed Sarbananda Sonowal [to become the Chief Minister],” Mr. Kharge said.

He asked his listeners if they would vote for a “betrayer who stole land” or the Assam Congress president, Gaurav Gogoi, a “serious, young leader” with a “clean image and good character”. EOM