GUWAHATI: Firebrand Rights activist, farmers’ leader Akhil Gogoi, who is the president of Krishak Mukti Sangram Samiti (KMSS), was released from prison on Wednesday after 105 days of his arrest under the National Security Act (NSA) and other charges.
Coming out of the prison, the firebrand leader alleged there was no democracy in the country under BJP rule and Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal was a puppet in the hands of Delhi-based leaders of the party
“There is no democracy in this country since the BJP came to power. In Assam, it has been worse than what it used to be when Hiteswar Saikia (Congress-I) or Prafulla Kumar Mahanta (AGP) was in power. The government does not tolerate criticism and democratic protests,” Gogoi told media immediately after he had been released from the Goalpara District Jail on Wednesday.
Gogoi was arrested on September 15 by the Dibrugarh Police from his Golaghat residence for a public speech in Moran in which he allegedly incited indigenous people of the state to take up arms for protection of their rights and other cases. The Gauhati High Court, however, have already quashed the cases registered under NSA against Gogoi.
Gogoi, has been a vocal critic of the Sarbananda Sonowal-led BJP alliance government and has been alleging that the BJP-RSS combine was out to destroy the Constitutional provisions by bringing in a section of Bangladeshis to India. “The BJP-RSS want to provide citizenship to Hindus from Bangladesh. This not only goes against the constitutional provisions, but will also push the Assamese-speaking people into a minority in the state,” he said.
“Sarbananda Sonowal had come to power by promising protection of interests of the indigenous people of Assam. But once in office, he has become a puppet in the hands of the BJP and RSS leaders. He has forgotten his commitment towards jaati-maati-bheti (people-land-dwelling place),” Gogoi said.
Akhil Gogoi threatened to relaunch the agitation demanding detection and deportation of Bangladeshi migrants from Assam. “We will also fight for a National Register of Citizens (NRC) that does not contain names of any Bangladeshi migrant,” he said after release from jail.
The KMSS leader has been leading a sustained agitation against construction of mega dam in the state and has brought construction work to a virtual halt at the 2000-MW Hydro-power dam project of NHPC and Gerukamukh along Assam-Arunachal Pradesh boundary.