Was it last year or the year before that the Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa seemed to have had all guns blazing to incinerate the Moghuls,the ‘Miyas’ or the ‘traitors belonging to a certain community.’ The Prevention of Early Marriage Act was passed and implemented in such a drastic manner that couples who had tied the knot thirty to forty years back had been hauled up before courts and even jailed.The Bulldozer justice was in full swing appalling even rabid supporters.Leading from the front the Chief Minister bawled in flaring press headlines, ”We don’t need Miya votes!”
Come election time the tenor changed unbelievably.The same BJP leader and the packs of jackals who always echo his howling tune turned into sage any sober philanthropists.The dry parched soil of Muslim dominated areas are drenched with showers of freebies under umpteen scheme s.Free ration,cash transfers and easy loans and the whole lot.The new Samaritans explain mournfully that they had actually never had anything against their Muslim brothers.It was only the Congress knaves who had spread the canard against them.Now Muslim brothers can see with their own eyes the real intentions of the Ram Bhakts and Desh Bhakts.It is difficult to find out if Muslims believe in this change of heart.But they are lapping up the gifts,crowding meetings where such leaders exude warmth and goodwill,some even joining BJP.
But the BJP cannot feel at ease.It suspects that deep down in their hearts the enthralled and mesmerized masses cherish smouldering resentment against its smugness and arrogance,its pride in power when they have to prostrate themselves before them even for paltry wants.They have tweaked the rules,roughed up the ground of the race,unleashed packs of hounds like CBI,ED,IT who are in full cry.Not content with that they have capriciously delimited constituencies in Assam and some other states so as to ensure victory of God’s chosen minions.Money is flowing like storm water.They have said,again and again,that the time is ripe to restore real democracy,guided by spiritual wise men and blessed by the child Ram,in place of the imitation of foreign states.But their calculations are coming unstuck.
The Supreme Court which they had written off as a band of loquacious petti-fogging logic chopping old men have sprung upon them one after another nasty surprise.They are hard put to find a reason for this volcanic eruption after seeming so tepid for years.It is as though these old or aging men had secretly hatched and cherished its own game-plan and had been biding for time.Election time is the season that favors an offensive marked by surprise targets.Unlike the earlier wishy-washy verdicts their deliveries are firm,clear and decisive.The BJP government now seems indecisive,hesitant and mired in corruption.Its moral aura is deeply tarnished.The unfair tactics it has used against the opposition are exposed. If the opposition cannot seize this opportunity to roll back the BJP invasion now,they never will.
Hiren Gohain is a political commentator
