Launching a scathing attack on former members of the party, who had since moved on, Congress on Monday called Assam Chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma as “viceroy of Northeastern states”.
In an indirect reference, the party also called Ghulam Nabi Azad, who had recently quit the party, Mir Zafar for speaking against the grand old party despite holding a prominent position in the party during his long association.
Speaking at Jantar Mantar, where party leaders from Assam were staging a demonstration demanding a CBI probe against Sarma, Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh said, “The central government uses agencies. For political vendettas, agencies are misused. But where the evidence is, there is no investigation. We demand that there be seven such cases where Sarma and his family members are accused that should be probed.”
Slamming the BJP for not acting against its leaders, the senior party leader said, “The reason is clear that he has come out of the washing machine of BJP. In Assam we have one more former minister, Bhubaneshwar Kalita, who has also undergone the same washing machine treatment.”
Taking a dig at Sarma, Ramesh, who is also a Rajya Sabha MP, said, “Assam CM is not only the state CM but he is the viceroy of all North Eastern states. He does not allow anyone to work in northeast India, whether it is Nagaland, Meghalaya, Manipur, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura or Sikkim.”
Referring to the ‘Darjeeling pact’, Ramesh said, “After the Darjeeling pact, the Trinamool Congress said we won’t field any other candidate against Jagdeep Dhankar (in the vice presidential election), who was then Governor of West Bengal. They also said they would abstain and would not vote in the election.”
“In this Darjeeling pact, Dhankar, Mamata Banerjee, and viceroy of northeastern states, Sarma, were involved. He is not only Assam’s CM, but he is a villain of the BJP in the northeastern states. He is trying to end Congress there,” the former Union Minister said.
Referring to Syed Mir Zafer Ali Khan Bahadur, the commander of Bengal who betrayed Nawab of Bengal Siraj Ud-Daulah in the Battle of Plassey on June 23, 1757, which paved the way for the British Raj in India, Ramesh took an indirect dig at Azad.
“There is one more Mir Zafar in Jammu and Kashmir after Assam,” Ramesh said without naming Azad.
Azad resigned from Congress on August 26. He also accused the new coterie of inexperienced sycophants of starting to run the affairs of the grand old party.
A party veteran close to late Prime Ministers Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, Azad said former party chief Rahul Gandhi’s childish behaviour and his disinterest in party affairs led to the Congress’ decline.