As Zubeen case lands Assembly floor, Ashok Singhal goes missing, spends week at 'Mahayagna'

The Assam Assembly’s winter session from November 25 to 29 unfolded with fierce debates on some of the most sensitive issues confronting the state-ranging from the Polygamy Prohibition Bill and the proposed ST status for six communities to the tabling of the long-awaited Tiwari Commission Report on the 1983 Nellie Massacre. 

It was a session that demanded full political presence. 

Yet one minister, normally inseparable from the Chief Minister’s side, was missing without explanation: Ashok Singhal.

Singhal, widely seen as one of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s closest aides and almost always seated directly behind him in the House, skipped the entire winter session. His absence became even more glaring as the rest of the cabinet actively took part in discussions of heavy political and social consequence.

More crucially, Singhal handles two key ministries—Health & Family Welfare and Irrigation. With several serious questions on the assembly agenda, his presence was vital for ensuring accountability. Instead, another minister fielded queries on his behalf. That is acceptable in genuinely unavoidable emergencies. But was Singhal’s absence prompted by any such critical situation?

So where was the minister during these five crucial days? Certainly not in the Assembly.

While the Chief Minister and his cabinet colleagues debated, countered the Opposition, and defended key government decisions, Singhal spent the last eight days immersed in the Ati Rudra Mahayagna at Sri Sri Gupteswar Devalaya in Singri, Dharma Nagri Dhekiajuli. 

A quick scroll through his official X handle (@TheAshokSinghal) shows a steady stream of devotional posts, images of yajnas, and updates from the religious ceremony, signalling he was in complete spiritual mode while the Assembly debated critical governance issues.

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The timing of his disappearance invited sharper scrutiny as the Assembly was expected to take up matters surrounding the death of beloved artist Zubeen Garg, including allegations involving land near “Zubeen Kshetra” and its alleged links to Singhal’s family. 

Although the issue did not reach the House floor, several opposition MLAs, including Raijor Dal leader Akhil Gogoi, forcefully raised their concerns before the media.

Gogoi launched a blistering attack, alleging that Singhal had “grabbed 29 bighas of non-cadastral land” around Zubeen Garg’s burial site. He accused the minister of deceiving local tribal residents and attempting to register land that “can never legally be mutated.” 

Gogoi warned that Singhal would not be allowed to “take even a single katha of land in Zubeen Kshetra,” declaring that if necessary, “the people of Assam will take possession of the land themselves,” calling Singhal “a baniya outsider trying to cheat the people of Assam.”

What adds to the contrast is that Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, despite attending the winter session, participating in debates, and steering major legislative decisions, still found time to visit the same puja rituals at Singri. 

While the CM balanced both responsibilities. Singhal chose only one.

As the winter session concluded without a single appearance from one of the cabinet’s most visible and influential ministers, the episode raises a pointed and uncomfortable question for the government: When Assam’s lawmakers were confronting critical issues inside the Assembly, why was Ashok Singhal missing, and was devotion the only reason.