Guwahati, Feb 20: Asking Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma to talk about jobs, Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Friday criticised the BJP leader, asserting that it is “wrong politics” of him to drag the family and children of the party’s state unit president Gaurav Gogoi over his alleged Pakistan link.
Calling Zubeen Garg “the voice of Assam’s soul” and “above politics”, Vadra said people deeply associate with the celebrity singer, whose every word had the message of love and unity.
Vadra, the Chairperson of the screening committee for Assam Congress, concluded her two-day Assam trip after holding a series of meetings with senior party leaders from the state in order to finalise the candidate lists for the upcoming assembly elections.
“There are two types of leaders in politics — one who does positive politics and the other who does polarisation. Gaurav Gogoi is doing the politics of love,” she said when asked about Sarma’s repeated attacks on the Assam Congress chief over alleged Pakistan links.
Vadra asserted that Gogoi is “a positive person, and wants to bring positivity in politics”.
“The way Gaurav and his family are being attacked, I feel it should be an example of wrong politics in Assam and India. Nobody’s family or children should be attacked like this. And especially when everything is just false,” she added.
Earlier this month, Sarma accused Gogoi, his wife Elizabeth Colburn and a Pakistani national, Ali Tauqeer Sheikh, of sharing a “deeper connection” and that sensitive information from Indian agencies had been passed to Pakistan. The CM had also claimed that Gogoi had surrendered his son’s passport so that the minor could get British citizenship.
“I will say that Gaurav is moving on the right track. That is why such a demeaning attack is taking place,” the Congress leader said.
Vadra further asserted that the people of Assam know that Gogoi is being attacked because the ruling party is afraid of him.
“He is a decent, positive man, and he wants to do a different kind of politics, which is Assam’s real feelings… All the charges are nothing new,” she added.
The Congress leader claimed that the politics of hatred is not Assam people’s real emotion, and that is why they have associated with people like Zubeen Garg.
“Zubeen Garg always spoke about unity and love. People, to a certain extent, would listen to these attacks, but nobody likes these attacks with such wrong statements,” she added.
Instead of such politics, the Assam CM should speak about the development of the state, the Wayanad MP said.
“Let him speak about what he has done for them. Let him speak about what he is going to do in the next five years. Today’s youths want to know it,” she added.
The youths and women want jobs, and today’s public cannot be misled so easily with these things, she asserted.
“People are seeing how Assam’s assets are being handed over to one family and big industrialists. The assets that are being handed over to industrialists belong to the people of Assam. The lands that are being given are people’s properties,” Vadra claimed.
She appealed to the people of Assam, especially the youths, to be aware and choose a politics that would speak positively, work for them and talk about how to make the state strong.
“You have seen how much corruption has taken place. This corruption is a betrayal of the people of Assam. This money is not taken from our pockets.
“The people of Assam are seeing this and understanding it. And when they see it, they are also identifying that the time has come for a change,” the Congress leader asserted.
Vadra, who was in Assam to shortlist Congress candidates for the upcoming assembly polls, made an unscheduled visit to Garg’s cremation ground ‘Zubeen Khetra’ at Sonapur on the outskirts of Guwahati in the morning without any media presence.
She was accompanied by Assam Congress President Gaurav Gogoi, Leader of the Opposition Debabrata Saikia and AICC General Secretary (in-charge of Assam) Jitendra Singh.
Later, Vadra said, “We should not take political benefits from these things. This is an emotion. Yesterday also, I spoke to my party workers about it. When Zubeen ji died, we who are not from Assam saw how much people loved and respected him. Every member of each family cried. We saw all these on social media and the news.”
Garg’s every song, every word had the message of love and unity, and Assam’s identity, culture, civilisation, and what Assam is, she added.
“I told it yesterday also to my party workers that Zubeen ji was the voice of Assam’s soul, Assam’s expression. Assam’s culture was sung by Zubeen Garg. If you listen, not a single song speaks about hating someone or attacking someone as an enemy,” she added.
The Lok Sabha MP said that many people whom she spoke to felt that the everyday talk of violence and attack nowadays is not the culture of Assam.
“We are also fighting for the same. In a way, our fight is also to protect Assam’s culture and civilisation. And we have to understand this.
“We do not want to use Zubeen Garg for politics at all, and nobody should do it. He was above politics. His attachment to the people was emotional. He was not in politics or wanted to become the CM,” she added.
Vadra stressed that people also did not associate with Garg due to politics, but because their hearts also carried the same feelings that the lyricist-singer-composer used to speak about.(PTI)
