From the Chanakya of the North-East to Being the 15th Chief Minister of Assam: The Story of the Rise of Himanta Biswa Sarma
- In Politics
- 05:08 PM, May 13, 2021
- Ankita Dutta
BJP strongman and the party’s main trouble-shooter in the North-East, Himanta Biswa Sarma, has been appointed as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam, replacing Sarbananda Sonowal. Born to the late Kailash Nath Sarma and Mrinalini Devi, Sarma is one of the most politically savvy and erudite leaders in not just Assam but also in the entire North-East. Boasting of an illustrious political career spanning over three decades, he has worked with the who’s who of Assamese politics right from the heydays of the AASU and the AGP to being a loyal Congress party worker for more than 20 years. The young Sarma began his political activism right from his school days when he served as a courier boy relaying secret messages among the top rung of the AASU leaders. He was an active student leader who also served as the General Secretary of Cotton College in Guwahati from 1991-1992.
As a mentee of the Congress politician and former CM of Assam Hiteshwar Saikia, the journey of Himanta Biswa Sarma in the Congress Party began from him collecting newspaper clippings of the day to be sent to Saikia every morning. In due course of time, the duo developed a very close relationship, which also earned Himanta several political rivals early on in his career. He was appointed by Saikia as a member-secretary of the State-Level Advisory Committee for Students’ and Youth Welfare. The sudden death of Hiteshwar Saikia in 1996 proved to be the biggest setback in the life of Sarma. He was left in the lurch, and thus lost his first electoral battle in 1996 from the Jalukbari constituency. With immense patience and persistence, he kept on pursuing his political ambitions with utmost dedication.
It was finally in the 2001 Assam Legislative Assembly Elections that Sarma defeated AGP stalwart Bhrigu Kumar Phukan from Jalukbari. After this impressive victory, it has been no looking back for Sarma. He has risen by leaps and bounds by virtue of sheer determination and extreme hard work. He served as the Planning & Development Minister in 2002 under the Congress-ruled Government headed by Tarun Gogoi. Continuing his progress in the echelons of the Congress Party under CM Tarun Gogoi, Sarma became a Cabinet Minister during the second-term of the Government (2006-2011). He handled the portfolios of Health and Family Welfare, Guwahati Development, Information Technology, and Science and Technology. During that time, by superseding many others, he became a close aide of Tarun Gogoi.
It was during the second-half of the third term of the Congress-led Government in the state (2011-2016) that saw his open clash with CM Tarun Gogoi, which eventually triggered his exit from the party. After joining the BJP, Sarma emerged as a key strategist for the party’s election campaigns in the North-East. He was a major architect of the BJP’s stunning performance in the 2016 Assam Assembly polls. He held different Cabinet portfolios including Finance, Education, Health and Family Welfare, etc. in the first BJP Government in the state that also had the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) as the alliance partners. He was also elected as the convenor of a new political formation – North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) – to coordinate the political affairs of the entire North-East for the BJP. Moreover, he served as the Central Government Standing Counsel in the Guwahati High Court and served as the convenor of the election management committee of the BJP during 2015-16. He is also involved in the organisation, functioning and management of different sports bodies under the Government of Assam.
The Assam Assembly Elections of 2021 were fought on the premise of a ‘War of Two Civilisations’ – a phrase coined by Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma himself during the campaigning for the elections. It gradually gained steam as the electoral prospects of the Congress-AIUDF Alliance started becoming clear in the Muslim-dominated seats of the Barak Valley, a few districts of Central Assam, and Lower Assam. The BJP in Assam made use of the state’s Bhaona tradition, where the party leaders were seen taking a vow to protect the Assamese identity and the culture and civilisation of the state. Well, being the master-strategist that Dr. Sarma is, he understood very well that the sentiments of the Assamese people in those districts where the Muslims were still not in a majority had to be effectively channelized, not only in order to ensure the defeat of the Congress-led Grand Alliance but also to make the prospects of the BJP stronger in the Brahmaputra Valley.
Earlier, under his initiative as the Education and Finance Minister of the Government of Assam, the Assam Repealing Act, 2020 was passed on December 30, 2020 to abolish the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation) Act, 1995 and the Assam Madrassa Education (Provincialisation of Services of Employees and Re-organisation of Madrassa Educational Institutions) Act, 2018. Defying all political correctness, Sarma had categorically informed in the Assembly that the Government of Assam had been spending a huge sum of Rs. 260 crore annually for running the madrassas exclusively, and that “the government cannot spend public money for religious teachings anymore”.
Sarma also held the portfolio of Health and Family Welfare in the previous Government. His role in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic earned him accolades in the national media too, both from his supporters and critiques. People in Assam remained glued to their television screens, waiting for their efficient Health Minister to address press meets and announce a new set of measures for fighting the pandemic step-by-step. At times, he even came to be compared to Sankat Mochan Hanuman Ji, for his relentless and untiring efforts in addressing the new challenges that came up in the healthcare system as a result of the pandemic.
But, in terms of popularity, Sarma’s Padajatra and vibrant roadshows were unparalleled to any other this time. He travelled from one end of Assam to the other, raising issues of corruption, dynasty politics, completing an unfinished NRC, etc. Unapologetically, he had made the issue of protecting the Assamese culture and civilisation from Islamic demographic expansionism the battle cry of the Assam Assembly Elections, 2021. He fearlessly declared that the BJP does not seek votes from the 35% Bengali-origin Muslim community in Assam to win elections. He also accused this community of posing an open threat to the Assamese culture and language and as well as the composite Indian culture.
The former Congressman who was often touted as the right-hand of CM Tarun Gogoi, Sarma, through his meticulous tactics, has now transformed himself as the poster-boy of the Assamese Hindus. From his open declaration of his religion as Sanatan at an election rally to his visit to the Maa Kamakhya Mandir in Guwahati before filing his nomination from the Jalukbari constituency, etc. these are the strategies that have further helped Sarma to consolidate his image of a proud, uncompromising Hindu. He is a product of the anti-foreigners’ movement of the 1980s that sought to protect the rights of the indigenous people of Assam against those of foreigners or migrants.
The colloquial form of address, i.e. Miya, used by most common men and women in Assam to designate a particular community may be wrong, but there is a genuine reason behind the prevalence of this discontent since the days of the Assam Agitation (1979-85). Such a discontentment among the masses is not an emotion that can be dismissed lightly anymore by the political establishment. In Assam, the nomenclature Miya is a commonplace reference used to describe the Bengali-speaking Muslims, their language, food habits, and culture, which are very different from the native Assamese community. Sarma utilised this to the best possible advantage for himself and as well as for his party. His speeches were infused with a lively gusto and energy that swayed the opinions of the youth and also convinced others about the threat to the Assamese identity and the need for it to be protected.
With the two most famous songs – Ahise Ahise Himanta Ahise Aaxare Botora Loi (The coming of Himanta arouses high hopes) and Akou Ebar Modi Sorkar (Modi Government once again) – being played in the background, an ever-energetic Sarma could be seen dancing to the tunes of their peppy music and catchy lyrics. These songs kept ruling the blockbuster charts throughout the period of campaigning, with the local Assamese TV news channels adding their own flavour to it in their own unique ways.
Interestingly, the song that electrified the campaign season on the eve of the 2016 Assam Assembly Elections, i.e. Axomore Aanondo Sarbananda (Assam’s happiness lies in Sarbananda) was nowhere to be heard this time. The Akou Ebar Modi Sorkar song sung by the well-known Assamese singer Simanta Shekhar was successful in creating a benchmark for the BJP back in the 2019 general elections. This time too, the party’s star campaigner Sarma was seen using it in his own distinctive style at several election rallies across Assam in the hope of bringing back the BJP with a resounding victory.
Undoubtedly, he was the most visible and vocal face of the party during the entire period of campaigning for the elections. Wherever he went, there was a charismatic wave that followed his rally. Sarma’s close interactions with the people, cutting across all barriers of caste, community, religion, etc. also provided ingredients to the creative meme-makers to explore various dimensions of the interaction between popular music and politics. In their own diverse ways, such entertaining memes contribute to the citizens’ understanding of political thought and action to a large extent. E.g. the Mama meme (Sarma is lovingly referred to as Mama in Assam) during the initial phase of the elections went viral in almost all social media platforms. The unprecedented popularity of Sarma in the politics of Assam, coupled with a feeble Opposition, eventually helped the BJP retain power in the state.
A bastion of Himanta Biswa Sarma since 2001, he has been elected from the Jalukbari seat to the Assam Legislative Assembly for four consecutive terms, three times as a Congress candidate and in 2016 as a BJP candidate. In the last election in 2016, 11 candidates had contested from Jalukbari and Sarma won by defeating the Congress candidate Niren Deka by a margin of 85,935 votes. He captured 76.62% of the total votes cast. A conspicuous phenomenon in Jalukbari this time was that despite Sarma’s very low physical presence during the election campaign, a strong wave of Sarma had already swept the constituency. Loved and adored as he is in his own constituency, Himanta could not find time enough to visit it during the campaign. But the public goodwill for him in the constituency surpasses that of any other candidate from any other party or constituency.
On the other hand, very little efforts to woo voters among the candidates of other political parties in most parts of the constituency cleared all the roadblocks in the way of Sarma. He was debarred by the Election Commission of India from campaigning for the elections for 48 hours with immediate effect from the night of April 2, on the ground of making “impugned statements” against Hagrama Mohilary, chairman of the Bodoland People’s Front (BPF) and INC alliance partner. BJP workers from different areas of the constituency carried out mass rallies and held several public meetings on behalf of Sarma. It is through his phenomenal work in the entire Jalukbari constituency, known for its huge share of literate voters, that Sarma has been able to set up a strong support base of all sections of the voters. Although the Left and the Congress Party both, have some pocket votes in the constituency, but it is not easily possible for their candidates to manipulate the vote-base that Sarma has nourished since the last 20 years.
Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma succeeds former CM and Jatiyo Nayak Sarbananda Sonowal, an ex-AGP leader who joined the BJP in the year 2011. Sonowal will perhaps best be remembered for one of his longest sustaining slogans in the political arena of Assam, i.e. Barak-Brahmaputra, Pahar-Bhoiam (meaning, Barak and Brahmapura Valleys, Hills and Plains). Coined by Sonowal himself on the eve of the 2016 Assembly elections in Assam, the phrase was at times dubbed as a cliché and thought to be a short-lived one. But this unifier slogan sustained for five long years at its full-scale as Sonowal uttered it in almost every public meeting throughout Assam. Sceptics who undermined this slogan as shallow and politically motivated were proved wrong.
The pitch of this slogan did not lose its intensity and gradually came to prove its relevance and sustainability in the geopolitical situation of a state like Assam. Himanta Biswa Sarma too, has often emphasised on its importance time and again. It is because both the Barak and the Brahmaputra Valley regions of Assam have paid heavy prices in the past in their endeavour to protect their cultures and languages. Any objective understanding of the politics of Assam in the present-day scenario cannot overlook this chapter of linguistic animosity between the Assamese and the Bengalis in the history of the state. The Assamese community had almost lost its written language after the Bengali babus prevailed upon the British to run Bangla as the official language of the province of Assam for decades. Had it not been for the Baptist missionaries who promoted Assamese language and literature, albeit for the spread of their religious dogma, the linguistic character of the region would have been much different today.
At the same time, the dominant Bengali population in the districts of the Barak Valley (Cachar, Karimganj, and Hailakandi) had to pay with the lives of 11 martyrs who were killed during police firing in 1961 while protesting against the imposition of the Assamese language in the Valley. These historical facts will always make it a gigantic task ahead for Himanta Biswa Sarma to bridge the gap between the Brahmaputra Valley and the Barak Valley. But Sonowal’s untiring efforts towards achieving this goal are indeed laudable. E.g. steps such as the establishment of a mini-Secretariat in Silchar will certainly go a long way in bringing the region closer to Dispur.
At the same time, the prevailing peace in the erstwhile disturbed hill districts of Karbi Anglong and Dima Hasao is an apt testimony of Sonowal’s endeavour in this regard by ensuring long-awaited, all-round development of these regions through adequate political representations in the Assembly. Additionally, improved connectivity, fast-paced construction of roads, bridges and public institutions such as universities, engineering and medical colleges in far-off, remote areas of the state have been some of the most remarkable and positive developments during the tenure of Sonowal. His Pahar-Bhoiam slogan rightly captured a chord in the minds of those ‘feeling neglected’ in the hills. Such a message persistently delivered in public platforms has definitely helped bridge the gap between the hills and the plains of Assam that has witnessed numerous ethnic clashes in the recent past.
The state has been fortunate enough of not witnessing any such violence in the past several years. All the stakeholders including politicians and political aspirants have by now, realised the absolute need for peace and not violence in order to thrive in their respective fields. This realisation has been reflected in the overall improvement of the law-and-order scenario of the entire Northeast. It is in this context that the need for slogans like that of Sonowal’s will never lose its relevance and needs to be popularised further in Assam and beyond. It will be interesting to see how the current CM of Assam carries forward the legacy of his predecessor to make Assam a unique example of cultural unity amid all its diversity.
The rise of Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma to the position of the Chief Minister of Assam is also significant from the point of view of understanding the gradual expansion of the RSS in Assam, with Nalbari district of Lower Assam as its focal point. Several RSS pracharaks have been killed in the past at the height of the ULFA agitation in Assam. Shukleshwar Medhi, a school teacher from Nalbari and an RSS pracharak, was killed by ULFA militant Naba Hiranya on August 30, 2005 in broad daylight. Medhi’s elder brother and another pracharak, Murli Manohar, were kidnapped and taken to unknown destinations by the ULFA in the late 1990s. The former returned but the latter never did. It was only a couple of months after the spine-chilling murder of Shukleshwar Medhi outside his school in Nalbari, that another pracharak Pramod Dixit was killed in Barpeta by the same dreaded militants of the ULFA.
There is a popular perception in Assam that the reins of power at Dispur have always been controlled from Upper Assam, with most of the former Chief Ministers who have ruled the state having invariably come from Upper Assam. This is true to a certain extent, but not entirely. There have been exceptions such as Sarat Chandra Sinha, who belonged to Dhubri district in Lower Assam and Dr. Bhumidhar Barman from Nalbari, who served the state for a short stint from April 22, 1996 to May 14, 1996. Dr. Barman was a caretaker Chief Minister for more than one time, but it was always a stop-gap arrangement during the regime of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi. The appointment of Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma who hails from Nalbari district, to the top post in the state has been a strategic consideration on the part of the BJP-RSS to further expand its footprint in the Northeast, especially after having been able to successfully retain Assam for the second consecutive term.
Dr. Sarma has become the first full-fledged Chief Minister from Lower Assam after Sarat Chandra Sinha who had resigned in 1977. Since then, it has always been Upper Assam which remained at the helm of the affairs in Dispur, beginning from Golap Borbora to Sarbananda Sonowal. The balance of power, it seems, has returned to Lower Assam after almost half a century of the control and influence exercised from Upper Assam. Interestingly, Basistha Bujarbaruah, the prant pracharak of the RSS in Assam, comes from Nalbari district. Besides, the BJP’s National General Secretary and MP Dilip Saikia and Organising Secretary Phani Sarma too, are from Nalbari. Dilip Saikia had been a part of the RSS, ABVP, and the BJP’s Youth Wing Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) in Nalbari. The President of the Assam State Unit of the BJP, Ranjeet Kumar Dass, is from Sorbhog in Barpeta district of Lower Assam.
This time, the Nalbari Assembly constituency has been wrested by Jayanta Malla Baruah, who is considered to be a staunch follower of CM Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma. The Congress nominee Pradyut Kumar Bhuyan was defeated by Ashok Kumar Sarma of the BJP in the last Assembly elections of 2016. Fast forward to 2021, the situation had changed on account of the denial of ticket to incumbent MLA Ashok Sarma. Although this caused a general disappointment among the grassroot-level workers of the BJP-RSS in Nalbari, but Jayanta Malla Baruah’s door-to-door campaign in the district, blessing by Himanta Biswa Sarma, was enough to ensure him a grand victory from this traditional bastion of the RSS in Lower Assam. It needs to be mentioned here that immediately after his oath-taking ceremony as the 15th Chief Minister of Assam on May 10, Dr. Himanta Biswa Sarma went to the Guwahati Keshav Dham, the headquarters of the RSS, to seek the blessings of the senior pracharaks, including Kshetra Pracharak Ulhas Kulkarni and Saha Kshetra Pracharak Basistha Bujarbaruah.
Dr. Sarma has been a former Congress leader of influence and repute, and his appointment to the top post is enough to remind India’s Grand Old Party about the art of nurturing ambitious mass leaders within its fold who are frequently deserting the party. They are seeking greener pastures elsewhere and becoming successful. Himanta Biswa Sarma’s entry and spectacular rise in the BJP is a classic case in point. The realist in him built a close working rapport with Sarbananda Sonowal soon after his induction into the party in August, 2015 at the official residence of Home Minister Amit Shah in New Delhi. Dr. Sarma is known for craftily planning his strategic moves by reading the people’s pulse. Despite the various corruption charges levelled against Sarma at different points of time during his political career, he enjoys the goodwill of the public, his party-men, and whoever works with him. His steep ascendancy in the political power hierarchy of Assam is something which would always keep the political scenario of this state ever-fascinating.
Image Source: Telegraph India
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