After joining Assam Jatiya Parishad, former MP Rajen Gohain slams BJP’s ‘Hitler-Like’ rule in Assam

In a blistering attack following his formal entry into the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP), former MP Rajen Gohain accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of turning Assam into a “police-run state” and running a “Hitler-like, authoritarian rule.” 

The veteran leader said the people of Assam had effectively handed over the state’s control to Delhi, losing their own voice and autonomy.

“I have seen the rule of many national parties. It feels as if we have handed our own state over into Delhi’s hands,” Gohain said, adding that the BJP, instead of strengthening Assam’s social fabric, had become its “biggest enemy.”

Gohain lamented that the BJP government had imposed a dictatorial style of functioning. “The entire administrative machinery has been used by the BJP for its own interests,” he alleged.

Invoking the late singer Zubeen Garg, Gohain said, “Zubeen had said Assam’s fields and markets must come into our hands. We will move forward with his ideals. No community can advance by abandoning the fields.” He accused national parties of allowing outsiders to take control of Assam’s land and resources.

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The former BJP MP, who had represented Nagaon in the Lok Sabha, said the party had “shamed its long-standing workers” and that those with self-respect should leave and “join regional forces like the AJP and AGP.”

Although expressing his differences with the Congress, Gohain said he was open to an alliance “out of respect for the call of the times.” “Not everyone in Congress is bad. Those who did bad things in Congress are now leading the BJP,” he remarked.

He also claimed that the BJP had appointed his son, Nabarun Gohain, to a post “thinking they can control his father,” and urged his son to leave the party.

Gohain further criticised Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma for his treatment of the late singer Zubeen Garg. “If the Chief Minister had shown even a little goodwill toward Zubeen, then when Zubeen protested the tree-felling, he would have cancelled that project. Zubeen was driven to the brink of death because of the upper-caste people around him,” he said.

Gohain’s remarks came shortly after he joined the Assam Jatiya Parishad, signalling his complete break from the BJP and aligning himself with regional forces ahead of the next election cycle.