Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi on Thursday said that Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi was hundred per cent correct when he remarked, as reportedly revealed by WikiLeaks, that the leaders of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) were insurgents, who were allowed to form government to discredit insurgency.
Mr. Gogoi alleged that the leaders of the AGP and the insurgent United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) were cousins.
Mr. Gogoi made this comment while reacting to burning of effigies of Mr. Gandhi by the AGP workers to protest against the reported remark made by him against the regional party. The AGP also warned of a legal action against Mr. Gandhi if he failed to substantiate the remarks. The AGP was formed in 1985 by the leaders of the six-year long anti-foreigners movement launched by the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) in 1979 at the culmination of the movement and signing of the Assam Accord. The regional party ruled the State for two terms. The ULFA was formed on April 7 in 1979.
“Whatever Mr. Rahul Gandhi said is 100 per cent correct. The AGP and the insurgents were cousins. There is no justification in AGP burning effigies of Mr. Rahul Gandhi,” the Chief Minister told a press conference here.
Mr. Gogoi said that it had been all along been a Congress policy to bring insurgents to the mainstream and the Congress government was successful in bringing those leaders of the Assam movement having links with the ULFA to the mainstream and convince them to take part in the democratic process. The Chief Minister claimed that though in initial years of the anti-foreigners movement, movement leaders had no links with the insurgents from around 1983 they had established links with each other and that was why the Congress leaders and workers were targeted and killed during the later part of the Assam movement.
When asked whether he had any evidence to prove the AGP-ULFA nexus, Mr. Gogoi said that people of Assam knew about such a nexus. The Chief Minister claimed that he had proof of the nexus but he was not bound to disclose it before the media.
