Guwahati: In power in the centre and in Assam for last few years, the BJP’s topgun Amit Shah seems to have diagnosed the malady afflicting the state well and asserted that ‘protest’ – a happening phenomenon in the province – is no panacea to get jobs or ensure infrastructure development.
In a speech billed as blowing the poll bugle, Shah told a gathering at the Kumar Bhaskar Barman Kshetra, Amingaon that – “Has protest fetched us development or created employment opportunities or developed health service?'”
He also said, “As the election season is approaching, a section of political leaders, who identify with the separatist thought, will try to incite common people to protest. But what have we got from protest?”
The missive from the powerful Union Minister Shah – considered the second most influential BJP leader after Prime Minister Narendra Modi- is significant as this northeastern state has been experiencing violence and protest in one way or the other since early seventies.
The students’ politics and long protest in the seventies and eighties had culminated with the Assam Accord in 1985 and the protest politics had revived again in 2019 after the Modi government passed the high voltage Citizenship Amendment Act.
Understanding the paradoxical situations vis-a-vis protest politics, Shah said some newcomers have come into play and they have also started floating their own political outfits. Thus he also said – “They will never be able to form the government in the coming election. Instead, it is going to aid the Congress party”.
In the last two years, a number of new regional parties have been floated.
Among the new entrants or parties in the state, the Asom Jatiya Parishad (AJP) has been floated, essentially drawing leaders and foot soldiers from the powerful All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) and Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuba Parishad (AJYP).
AASU’s shot at politics is not happening for the first time. In the eighties – it gave Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), which has tasted power in Dispur more than one tenure and is now playing second fiddle to the BJP. In the early 1990s, AGP’s misgovernance and absence of control on things had resulted in making the terror group ULFA turn aggressive.
Another new party Raijor Dol has been floated lately.
This party is essentially run by an influential farmers’ body – the Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity. The new party may try to work out an alliance with another newly floated outfit AJYP.
The Raijor Dol also announced that prominent KMSS leader Akhil Gogoi will contest from Sivasagar constituency in Upper Assam.
In Assam the next year’s battle is likely to witness a season for new parties, sub-regionalism and
strong anti-CAA flavour.
In many street corner meetings and informal gatherings, the student bodies and tribal organisations are getting hyperactive but generally showing preference to newly floated regional parties.
Thus, a series of new political outfits of greenhorns will be major contestants in the race for the 2021 assembly elections.
