Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on January 25 said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi timed his Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra with the build-up to the consecration of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya to trigger a communal clash in the State.
He said his government and the Batadrava Than Management Committee had requested the Congress leader to visit the Batadrava shrine in central Assam’s Nagaon district after 3 p.m. on January 22 to avoid any law-and-order issue that could have arisen out of sentiments attached to Ayodhya event that day.
Also Read | Himanta Biswa Sarma, Rahul Gandhi spar; Assam Chief Minister warns Congress leader of arrest after polls
“Rahul Gandhi spent eight days in Assam. I presume he liked the hospitality of our people and hope he visits us again,” Mr. Sarma told journalists at an event to release the first volume on the political history of Assam.
“Rahul and the Congress ecosystem gave the impression that he was not allowed to enter the Batadrava shrine but one has to understand the prevailing situation. Thousands of people visited the shrine on January 22 to mark the Pran Pratishtha. No temple committee could have allowed the leader of a party that boycotted the Ayodhya event to let him in during that period,” he said.
The Chief Minister said the government did not ban his entry into the shrine, the birthplace of 15th-16th century saint-reformer Srimanta Sankaradeva, but requested him to visit after 3 p.m. to minimise the chances of any law-and-order problem.
“Moreover, I did not want him to create any situation in a holy place that would have diverted the public attention from Ayodhya. All he needed to do was wait for two hours. Are you so big a VVIP that you do not have time for Sankaradeva?” he said.
Also Read | Rahul Gandhi dares Assam Police to file more FIRs; says he won’t be intimidated
Congress, he alleged, created the drama along the sensitive parts of Assam (Muslim-majority districts of Nagaon and Morigaon district) as part of a conspiracy to disturb the communal harmony in the State. “But the people of Assam defeated their plan,” he said.
The Chief Minister also ridiculed Mr. Gandhi by saying he used a body double for most of the yatra in Assam.
Rewriting history
Earlier, Mr. Sarma said it was high time history in India was rewritten based on facts and historical evidence and not on ideology.
He said this while releasing the first edition of the ‘Political History of Assam (1947-1971)’ by Rajen Saikia, a former president of the Indian History Congress.
OPINION | The Batadrava-BJP connect in Assam
“When leftists write history, they try to put their ideology before history but our history cannot be seen through the prism of ideology,” he said.
“We know about Lachit Borphukan but we do not know how Raja Prithu stopped Muhammad Bakhtiyar Khalji from invading Assam. When I presented a book on Raja Prithu to Home Minister Amit Shah in Tezpur, he was surprised to know about him and asked why no books have been published in Hindi to date,” Mr. Sarma said.
To be published in three volumes, the reworked political history of Assam has a 2025 deadline for completion.
