Democratic people are obviously appalled at chief minister Himanta Biswa Sharma’s claim that according to doctors activist-politician Akhil Gogoi is a mental patient. Sarma had said before the Assam Assembly elections that Akhil wanted the comfort of GMCH and that was why the government allowed him to stay there, instead of jail. The rules do not allow an insane person to contest. He is an elected member of the Assam Legislative Assembly. Chief minister Sarma is resorting to falsehood.
In the past, too, Sarma avoided coming face to face with Akhil Gogoi because he knew that despite his communication skills and the ability to distort facts he stood no chances in a debate with this activist politician.
As the chief minister, he makes this statement probably to make it impossible for the Court to allow Gogoi to participate in the Assembly debate. The chief minister is scared of facing him.
Some people believed that becoming an MLA would help Akhil Gogoi to secure release. That belief assumed that BJP had some semblance of shame and would accept the popular mandate gracefully. However, this is a very innocent belief.
Politics is not about being innocent. It is about making the best of the possibilities. Some of Akhil’s friends are missing an opportunity of fighting the legal battle move vigorously. As I keep saying judges are human and hence cannot ignore the climate. Therefore it was time to press his case in the Supreme Court more actively.
Second, all democratic forces in Assam and India must support Akhil, the MLA. He must be allowed to participate in the Assembly debates. Active, visible protest in his constituency is a must. His party should find ways of doing that despite Covid-19 restrictions.
Democratic forces in the rest of the world must also visibly criticize the Govt of India and the Govt of Assam for gross violation of democratic rights.
In view of the near-total control of BJP its corporate friends in the field of news and views expressed in the media it is important to use social media, particularly, the WhatsApp groups and Twitter to expose this atrocious behavior of the chief minister.
BJP is trying to refurbish its image in international politics. We must pressurize them to behave. It is peculiar that despite its limited reach among the people BJP takes twitter more seriously than other platforms. Very elitist. Knows masses can be suppressed but not the Twitterati! Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s international image must surpass the first PM. Let us fight them back.
APURBA BARUAH