‘Vulgar and shameful’: Gaurav Gogoi condemns Assam minister’s ‘gobi farming’ post

Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi has sharply criticised Assam Cabinet minister Ashok Singhal for sharing a cauliflower-farming image after the Bihar election results, saying the post represents “a shocking new low in political discourse”.

Singhal had posted a photograph of cauliflower fields with the caption, “Bihar approves gobi farming”. Gogoi said the phrase is “widely associated with the Logain massacre of 1989”, during which over a hundred Muslims were killed in Bhagalpur and “their bodies concealed under cauliflower plantations”.

Gogoi wrote that using such imagery in a political context was “both vulgar and shameful”. He argued that invoking a tragedy of this scale “shows how far some are willing to descend in public life”.

He further alleged that this mindset is encouraged by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, whom he accused of harbouring “a hatred for Indian minorities”. Gogoi contrasted this with Assam’s cultural heritage, saying the state is the land of “Mahapurush Sankardev, Lachit Borphukan and Azaan Pir”.

Looking ahead to next year’s Assembly election, he added that “the people of Assam will end the rule of hate and greed”.