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GUWAHATI, JULY 2: Political tensions ran high in Assam after a plastic water bottle was thrown at Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s convoy during his visit to Golaghat on Monday. While no one was injured and the bottle did not hit any vehicle directly, the incident raised immediate political and security concerns.
By Tuesday, six people had been arrested over the incident, including prominent Congress workers. Among them are Pallab Chetia, Secretary of the Golaghat District Congress Committee, and Rahul Phukan, son of a former Block Congress Secretary—both said to be close to Assam Congress president Gaurav Gogoi. Their arrest has brought the political tension between the BJP in power and the Congress to a boil.
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The ruling party BJP promptly blamed the Congress for staging the incident as part of what it called a “politics of disruption.” Golaghat BJP MLA Biswajit Phukan cited earlier political animosities and alleged that the Congress “cannot stand the popularity of the Chief Minister.” Assam Power Minister Prasanta Phukan went on, terming the incident a “serious security breach” and even going so far as to claim that it constituted an “attempt on the life of the Chief Minister.” He demanded the Chief Minister’s entire security setup be reviewed.
Video of the attack soon went viral on social media, fueling the political fire. The BJP organized protests in Dibrugarh, calling for swift action and a public apology from the Congress. The Congress, meanwhile, emphatically denied any role and party spokesperson Rituporno Konwar claiming that four Youth Congress workers were “illegally detained” even before the bottle-throwing incident occurred during a different protest against cattle theft.
“If they were under arrest, how could they be implicated?” Konwar said, implying the accident was being used to silence genuine political opposition.
Though denying the charge of conspiracy, top Congress leaders strongly condemned the act of bottle-throwing. The party leader Bhupen Borah asserted, “Congress has faith in peaceful and democratic protest. Throwing a bottle at the CM is unacceptable and condemnable.” Congress MLA Rakibul Hussain—who also remembered his experience of once being attacked in front of the same CM house—condemned the BJP for allegedly politicizing the incident to attack the opposition.
Chief Minister Sarma spoke to the media with a bit of sarcasm, deflating the gravity of the attack. But the political heat in Assam is still high, with both sides exchanging barbs over the fallouts of the attack.
