GUWAHATI, July 18: Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has said police will “not hesitate” to take action against Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge and Rahul Gandhi if it finds that their speeches had instigated encroachers to attack security forces in Paikan Reserve Forest on Thursday.
Sarma also maintained that the opposition party was preparing to fight next year’s state polls with a single-point agenda of putting him behind bars.
Talking to reporters after attending a party meeting late on Thursday evening, Sarma said, “Kharge and Gandhi visiting Assam is not the question. But in their meeting, they openly encouraged the encroachers and land jihadis to encroach government land.”
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Congress president Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Gandhi had visited the state on Wednesday, during which they had held a closed-door discussion with top state party functionaries here and later addressed party workers at Chaygaon, 40 km from Guwahati.
The chief minister claimed that the speeches by the two leaders had “encouraged and emboldened” encroachers, who allegedly attacked security forces in Paikan Reserve Forest in Goalpara on Thursday morning and in clashes that followed, one civilian was killed and 20 others, including policemen, injured.
Referring to Kharge’s statement that Congress will rehabilitate the evicted people in the state, Sarma said, “Because of these kinds of speeches, people get encouraged and those evicted people started throwing stones and beating police with sticks and various other weapons (at Paikan).”
He said police have registered a case already, and they will see whether these statements were directly or indirectly responsible for the incident.
“Police will go through the speeches made by Gandhi and Kharge. And if we see that there are elements which invite penal action, police will not hesitate to take action against them,” Sarma, who also holds the Home department, asserted.
On Gandhi claiming that Sarma will be put in jail for corruption by the people, the BJP leader said, “The big question is whether Rahul Gandhi will be in jail and when. ED has seized many property of Robert Vadra today (Thursday). There are many jails in India waiting for the Gandhis.”
“You see, he is just an MP today. How can he arrest a chief minister?” Sarma said, adding that even Congress members do not give importance to what Gandhi says.
“Congress will contest the 2026 Assam election on only one agenda that Himanta Biswa Sarma will be put behind bars. Who will vote for a party whose manifesto will be of only that one line?” Sarma claimed.
“But we have bigger tasks. There are two cases against Gandhi in Assam, I can bring him in. But my election cannot be Gandhi-centric, it will be on our work for the state. I am not allowing my mind to be diverted, else I would have retorted in ample measure to the threats given to me,” he said.
Sarma, who had been an influential Congress minister before joining the BJP in 2015, claimed that he had people within the opposition party who constantly updated him on whatever transpired in the closed-door discussion the top central leaders had with state functionaries.
He claimed that half of the people at the workers’ meet at Chaygaon were from the minority community, but they were made to sit at the back, with tribals and others given the front seats.
“I have information that Congress asked the minority people to trim their hair and beards before the meeting, and refrain from wearing the skull caps,” Sarma alleged. (PTI)
