BJP report on Assam situation a great relief for Mahanta, AGP

BJP report on Assam situation a great relief for Mahanta, AGP
Express News Service

Guwahati, November 22: The report of the fact-finding committee of the BJP that had toured the state to assess the Assam situation in the wake of the recent spurt of violence has come as a big relief for chief minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta.

The committee, which submitted its report in New Delhi and made it public simultaneously, has come soft on the Assam government, and held the Congress party's nexus with the ULFA rebels and the ISI of Pakistan responsible for the recent incidents.

That the committee's leader Vijay Goel, a Member of Parliament, has also stated that the BJP was against the idea of dismissing the Mahanta government has also come as a breather for the ruling Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and its allies.

The team was dispatched by the BJP national leadership earlier this month following demands by the state leaders in view of the ULFA repeatedly making the Hindi-speaking trading community its target during October and November. Altogether as many as 41 persons were killed in five separate incidents of violence in the state during the past five or six weeks, and almost all of them were Hindi-speaking traders who have been in Assam for several generations.The report of the Committee has not only come as a surprise for the opposition Congress party in the state, but has also embarrassed a section of the state BJP leaders. While the Congress has whipped up a campaign seeking ouster of the Mahanta government and imposition of Central Rule in the state, a section of state BJP leaders too had raised the same demand.

Both parties have even launched statewide programmes against the AGP-led government, complaining that the Mahanta government had miserably failed to bring the insurgency under control. The campaigns have attained additional significance in view of the fact that the state Assembly elections are drawing closer.

Commenting on the report, a senior leader of the AGP said that the BJP team had only vindicated the ruling party's view that the Congress was behind the recent killings.

"Our chief minister has already submitted a report saying the same things, to the union home ministry. He had also laid a statement in the State Assembly about the Congress-ULFA nexus," said the AGP leader.

In New Delhi yesterday, chief minister Mahanta has reiterated his demand that the Congress be debarred from taking part in elections in Assam for being hand in glove with the ULFA. He has said that the AGP would even approach the Election Commission with this demand.