Party bullying in Assam

MV Kamath

We can blame the United States over the Khobragade issue and get away with it. But think of what is happening back home in India in various fields of political and social activities that is enough to make us feel ashamed, if, that is, we have a sense of guilt. Just take a simple case of nominating a Congressman for a Rajya Sabha seat from Assam.

A highly cultured State with an impressive history of poets and scholars, not to say freedom fighters, it can name any number of men for election to the Rajya Sabha. But no, the Congress Party there in power in the Assam Legislative Assembly is asked to name an ‘outsider’ to the post. Thus, the Assam Assembly had elected Dr Manmohan Singh for five terms and no questions asked. Are we to believe that there are no good Legislators in the Assembly capable of filling the post?

The Congress argument is that any Indian can stand for election from anywhere in the country considering that it has been sanctioned by the Constitution.

The latest offensive in projecting Sultanpur Congress MP Sanjay Singh of Amethi on Assam. It has raised hassles of the Assamese and quite rightly so.

As The Sentinel (February 5) put it, “all those who have endorsed the decision to support the candidature of Sanjay Singh against the first vacancy as Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, must accept responsibility for having violated the provisions of Article 80(2) of the Indian Constitution.

Should the Congress Party impose an ‘outsider’ on the Assam Assembly just because it has a majority and the views of the Congress High Command should be accepted? What sort of democracy is this? The Congress has violated all decent norms to impose Sanjay Singh on Assam. Today it is a Rajya Sabha seat. Can Congress tomorrow impose an ‘outsider’ as Assam’s Chief Minister? How many ‘outsiders’ has the Congress Party imposed on other State Legislators for Rajya Sabha membership?

As JP Rakhowa, a well-known commentator said: “The senior Congress leaders of Assam, who are the sons of the soil and who have sacrificed a lot for the party over the years through thick and thin and some of whom were hopeful of Rajya Sabha nomination, are a frustrated lot now. The people of Assam as a whole feel let down by Tarun Gogoi and his Congress.”

How many months of his life as Prime Minister has Dr Manmohan Singh spent in Assam? Does he know and has he even tried to learn Assamese? Has he addressed any public meeting in Assam? He has reportedly spent more than a year during the last ten years in travelling – and staying – abroad, but can he claim to have spent an equal number of years in the State which had sent him to the Rajya Sabha? And what has he done that is so remarkable for the Assamese to be grateful to him? On the other hand such is the bad name that UPA II has earned that the Assamese people must be feeling totally let down!

According to the Assamese media, the imposition of Sanjay Singh has led to widespread protests across the State with Chief Minister Gogoi facing the severest attack for his failure to stand up to the High Command. Equally damned is the Congress chief Bhubaneshwar Kalita for ‘shamelessly’ accepting the nomination of another Singh and calling him ‘sahodar’ (brother).

According to Rajkhowa, who, surely, speaks for the majority of the Assamese, “Dr Singh has hardly got any of Assam’s major problems, including infiltration of foreigners, flood and erosion issues solved”. As he put it: “With another Dr Singh, a dark horse in Assam’s socio-political arena, as also dubious track record and reputation becoming a Rajya Sabha MP, Assam would be left with only five seats in the Rajya Sabha, for the indigenous Asomiyas, a matter of serious concern as voiced by all the protestors.”

If the ‘new’ Dr Singh – Sanjay – is so good as to deserve a Rajya Sabha seat, why not ask the Punjab or Haryana State Assemblies to nominate him? Why deprive the Asomiyas of their natural rights?

In the first place, it is not fair to impose an ‘outsider’ on a State legislature. In the second place it is a slap on the face of the locals. In the third place, even a member of the Opposition should be given preference to an ‘outsider’ because after all he represents in howsoever small a measure his fellow State citizens. Perhaps it is time for the Constitution to make it clear.