Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia hits out at Assam CM Himanta Biswa for his ‘Opp MLAs have no business’ remark

Assam Opposition leader Debabrata Saikia came down heavily on state chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his remarks that “there is no work of the Opposition for 5 years” and “Opposition MLAs have no business”.

Chief minister Sarma made the remarks on Saturday.

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Congress leader Saikia in a statement said: “Yesterday, the Chief Minister made a remark that “there is no work of the Opposition for 5 years. The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will be in Assam, so the Opposition MLAs have no business and everyone should leave the Opposition and join the ruling party.”

The Opposition leader in the Assam Legislative Assembly and Congress MLA from Nazira constituency has strongly condemned the chief minister’s remark.

“The CM should make public apology for uttering such undemocratic words,” Saikia stated.

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Stating that the role of the Opposition is clearly stated in the Constitution of the nation, Saikia said the Congress party has been playing the role of a constructive Opposition in the past, wherever required.

Saikia reminded that the Jan Sangha and later the BJP was able to win only “one or two seats in Parliament at a time”.

“There were 130 seats in between and sometimes less and sometimes more. After getting 36 per cent of the votes at all-India level, it has been possible for BJP to form a government at the Centre today with more than 300 MPs in Parliament,” Saikia stated.

This is possible due to provisions of Indian Constitution and democratic system, the Opposition leader stated.

“The Congress party has been waging a relentless war against the BJP party, which seeks to destroy the democratic values of our country,” Saikia claimed.

The main role of the Opposition is to criticize the government constructively and to protest against any act of the government against the public interest, to protect the rights and freedoms of the people and to express the views of the people to the government, he said.

There are many examples of this work being done by the Congress party in Assam in the past, he stated.

The BJP and the government of Assam have promised to control the flood by excavating the Brahmaputra sub-basin, but it been seven 7 since this promise was made, but “nothing has been done”, the Congress leader said.

Saikia said the BJP has mentioned in the Vision Document that it would implement the Assam Accord in letter and spirit.

“But even then ‘CAA’ was introduced hurting the spirit of the Assam Accord and we strongly protested,” he said.

In 2019, the issue of microfinance in Assam was raised in the Legislative Assembly and now the government is saying that it will not completely waive the debt of microfinance, Saikia mentioned in the statement.

“This is in spite the Chief Ministers repeated promise to the people of Assam that all loans would be waived in the Assembly. We demand that CM should keep his election promise as announced in floor of the House,” Saikia stated.

He also raised the issue of evictions carried out in some districts of Assam.

“The evicted people are not re-established even though they are all Indians, as a result of which all of them move from the evicted areas to another region. We have made a number of demands, both inside and outside the House, to ensure that no evictions measures are taken without resettlement,” Saikia stated.

The chief minister recently said all the landless people would be given shelter under the Prime Minister’s Housing Scheme, Saikia reminded.

Saikia demanded that the number of people, who have been evicted so far in different parts of Assam and the people, who are landless, “all of them should be provided government houses within the next two years & allocate sufficient farmland to them for subsistence”.

Saikia alleged that there are various illegal syndicates in Assam and a lot of corruptions are going on in Assam.

“But now, with the new government using the police against corruption, the current government is exposing the corruption of the past. That has been proven,” Saikia claimed.

“The present government wants to create such an environment, where no one will raise a finger against its misdeeds. This is possible if there is no opposition to the ruling party and we, the Congress, will not allow it to happen,” the Opposition leader asserted.