'Cancer is divine justice to Muslim migrants are enemy': Why Himanta is Assam's Yogi

 The biggest 'gift' the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been able to give to Assam in its one-and-a-half-year rule in the state is by turning state minister Himanta Biswa Sarma into a mini-version of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath.

Both are motormouths, controversial, Muslim bashers and often spread lies through their speeches. And, yes, of course, both hold top constitutional posts and are BJP's blue-eyed boys.

When Assam voted for the BJP in the last Assembly elections in 2016, after being tired of the Congress's misrule for 15 years, people thought Prime Minister Narendra Modi would bring 'development' to the neglected state.

Development, the PM's most abused word in all election rallies, is yet to make its presence felt in the far-off land of Assam. In fact, it is the BJP's 'Hindutva agenda' that is fast spreading to every nook and cranny of Assam.

Thanks to the strong presence of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and ministers like Sarma, everyday politics in Assam is currently about 'religion and Muslim bashing'.

It is not that Sarma, who had switched his allegiance from the Congress to the BJP ahead of



the Assembly polls in the state in 2016, was a quiet and dignified leader during his tenure as the grand old party's second-in-command in the state.

He has always been controversial and a motormouth, a defence mechanism developed by Sarma to keep himself politically relevant.

After being sidelined by former Congress CM of Assam, Tarun Gogoi, to promote his son Gaurav Gogoi, Sarma, who always nursed the dream to become the CM of the state, decided to quit the grand old party and join hands with the BJP.

While tendering his resignation from the Congress, Sarma claimed that his decision was the result of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi's 'arrogance' towards party leaders and their problems. Since then, he has been regularly criticising Rahul and praising PM Modi.

However, insiders say after his name figured in the Saradha scam, Sarma decided to take shelter under the protection of PM Modi.

When the BJP came to power in Assam for the first time with a huge mandate by winning 86 seats along with its allies in the 126-member Assembly, Sarma was one of the main reasons behind such a major victory achieved by the saffron party.