Tarun Gogoi: Won’t let leaders speaking Hindi invade

In his continued tirade against the BJP, Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi here on Wednesday said that some Hindi-speaking leaders are trying to invade Assam.

Three days after asking for removal of Assam governor P.B. Acharya for his alleged communal remarks, Mr Gogoi accused BJP leaders of not knowing as to how to pronounce Assamese names of their leaders.

Referring to the BJP central leaders’ statement in which they could not pronounce the names of their leaders correctly, Mr Gogoi said that it was an invasion by Hindi-speaking people in Assam.

Mr Gogoi also cited as to how the BJP’s Assam in-charge Mahendra Singh referred to Srimanta Sankardeva (Vaishnavite saint) as Baba Sankardeo. Mr Gogoi said that it was totally unacceptable.

“All these leaders do not even know how to pronounce Assamese names. They call former BJP state president Sidhartha Bhattacharya as Sidharth, present president Sarbananda Sonowal as Sonwal and Himanta Biswa Sarma as Hemant. The Hindi-speaking people are coming to invade Assam and we will not allow it,” said Mr Gogoi adding that BJP leaders are remembering Ahom general Lachit Borphukan now because of the coming polls.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP president Amit Shah had also tweeted on the 17th century Ahom general on his birth anniversary on Tuesday.

State BJP in-charge Mahendra Singh in his reaction said, “Tarun Gogoi knows that he is on his way out and so he is making such remarks. Lachit Borphukan is an inspiration for the entire nation.”

It is significant that a year after Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi took over the office, the state had witnessed an outbreak of violence against Hindi-speaking residents of Assam. The remark of chief minister has also been seen as an attempt to create a polarisation on issue of outsiders and insiders in the run up to 2016 assembly elections.