Tarun Gogoi: BJP twisted my remark

Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Monday said that his statement on Hindi-speaking people was twisted and wrongly interpreted to give it a different colour by Union minister Venkaiah Naidu and BJP general secretary Ram Madhav. In a written statement, he said his comments on Hindi-speaking people has been twisted out of context and given a different colour altogether.

“I have never uttered anything against Hindi-speaking people. My statement has been twisted out of context by Union minister Venkaiah Naidu and other BJP leaders to give it a different colour. In fact, what I said was, the state unit of the BJP has become a Hindi-centric party wholly dominated by Hindi-speaking leaders,” he said.

Mr Gogoi claimed that he has been all along safeguarding the interests of the Hindi-speaking people in the state during the past 14 years of his government. The chief minister said that his government would soon constitute a development council for Hindi-speaking people so that they forge ahead on the path of growth and development. “Assam is the only state having development councils for minority communities, including the Hindi-speaking people,” he added.

The chief minister said that he has been heading the Rashtrabhasa Prachar Samiti and taking steps to promote Hindi language, besides taking part in Hindi literary meets.

“In my entire political career spanning several decades during which I was the AICC in-charge for Bihar and UP, I have been all along working for the interests of all sections of people, including the Hindi-speaking people. Espousing the cause of Assam and its people has always been uppermost in my mind,” he said.

Mr Gogoi said that his Council of Ministers comprises representatives from different communities, including Hindi-speaking people. “My council of ministers consists of representatives from different communities, including Hindi-speaking people. Even my parliamentary secretary is a Hindi-speaking person. Unlike the BJP party dominated by Hindi-speaking leaders whose writ runs on our spineless local BJP leaders who more often remain mute for their petty interests, our Hindi-speaking leaders in the Congress party only advice us on important issues but in no way diktat terms,” he added.

Mr Gogoi accused BJP’s national functionaries of trying to impose Hindi pronunciations, while referring to Assamese. “BJP’s Assam in-charge Mahendra Singh has referred to Srimanta Sankardeva (Vaishnavite saint) as Baba Sankardeo, which is totally unacceptable. All these leaders do not even know how to pronounce Assamese names. They call former BJP state president Sidhartha Bhattacharya as Sidharth, present president Sarbananda Sonowal as Sonwal and Himanta Biswa Sarma as Hemant Biswa Karma. Actually the problem lies with these BJP leaders is that they do not understand the local sentiments and issues.”