An Epitaph For AGP
By Sazzad Hussain
10 March, 2014
Countercurrents.org
The dwindling profile of once popular Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in run-up to the incoming Lok Sabha Polls is writing the climax of the script of its journey from a euphoric formation to the junkyard of collective memory. The latest exodus of AGP bigwigs to BJP has further shrunk the existence of this party which once had ministers in the Union Cabinet. The defection of leaders or workers to various parties is nothing new in the political landscape of our country. In the last decade or so we have seen two big north Indian parties—Samajwadi Party led by Mulayam Singh Yadav and Bahujan Samaj Party led by Mayawati accommodating leaders of each other parties either expelled by the original party on account of criminal offenses or anti-party activities. We have also seen once a firebrand of anti-Congress rhetoric, late Rama Krishna Hegde of Karnataka embracing Congress party and so in the case of Jaipal Reddy of the Telegu Desham Party. The list will go further. However in none of these cases the parent political party, which the defector had earlier belonged to, faced an existential threat after their departure. In the case of the AGP the end was scripted much earlier.
AGP was formed in the wake of the historic Assam Accord of 1985 signed between the Central Government led by late Rajeev Gandhi and the leaders of the All Assam Students Union (AASU) and All Assam Gana Sangram Parishad. It was formed in Golaghat on October 13–14, 1985 following a public convention and eulogized in a song by Surya Das. AGP was the party of the masses—that waged a six year long agitation, known as the Assam Movement (1979-85) for the expulsion of illegal infiltrators (read Bangladeshis)from Assam and to enforce the Assamese nationality in the statecraft and in public establishments. They formed the state government, wining 69 seats, in the election of 1985 in which Assam also had simultaneous LS polls—sending 7 MPs to the Parliament. AGP was a part of the National Front government from December 1989 to November 1990. Its MP, Dinesh Goswami was the Union Minister of Law and Justice in the V. P. Singh Ministry. Besides wining the popular mass support, the AGP also enjoyed considerable support from the AASU and the insurgent ULFA during their first term of office, which also saw the rise of the secessionist outfit from 1988 onwards. However crack developed within the party when Lakhimpur MP, late Gokul Saikia and Mangaldoi MP, Saifuddin Ahmed left AGP much before the 1991 LS pools. At the same time senior leaders like Bijoya Chakrabartty, David Ledger and others left the party to join the BJP. In 1991 assembly polls AGP’s founder member Bharat Narah joined the Congress who is now a stalwart in the party.
In 1991 simultaneous assembly and parliamentary polls AGP faced the infighting for the first time in which its rebel faction formed the New AGP—paving the way for Congress to form the state government (with 66 seats). But it could return some of its leaders as MPs to the Lok Sabha in which it was again a part of the United Front governments headed by H. D. Deve Gowda and Inder Kumar Gujral. AGP leaders Birendra Prasad Baishya and Muhi Ram Saikia were the Union Minister of Steel and Mines and the Union Minister of State for Human Resources Development respectively in the United Front governments. That was what now can be called the zenith of the political ascendancy of the AGP as a strong regional party.
The defection of senior leaders like Bijoya Chakrabartty to BJP was seen as the natural choice because many of its workers during the Assam Movement was found in complete affinity with the ideology of the Sangh on the foreigner’s issue of Assam. Some RSS leaders like late Sudarshanji were the mentor of the Assam Movement leaders and persons like Arun Shourie was an ardent supporter of the movement in his way. Therefore the present defection of AGP founder members like Atul Borah, Hiten Goswami, ex-president Chandra Mohan Patowary have made this journey of the ideological allegiance to BJP a full circle. Atul Bora who earlier had rebelled and formed Trinamul AGP in 2000 and aligned with the BJP in 2001 assembly elections always represented a fringe element of the regionalism in an enigmatic way and so Mr. Patowary, who aligned with the BJP in the 2006 assembly polls as the AGP president.
However, AGP, led by its president Prafulla Kumar Mahanta came back to power in the state in 1996 elections by forging an alliance with CPI and a small party backed by Jamiat-Ulema-e-Hind. This made AGP moving away from the core issue of deporting illegal infiltrators and since then there has been a tendency by some of its leaders to go towards the saffron party. This time onwards, the party began to lose the support of the Assamese nationalist establishments and organizations like the AASU and ULFA began opposing the leadership of the AGP. Coupled with rampant corruption, financial crisis and a complete halt of development works, the second term of office of AGP was marked by lot of popular agitations and attacks by the ULFA, ending their earlier bonhomie. Chief Minister Mahanta also used the forces to crush the insurgency activities with alleged “secret killings” which eroded his public image significantly in the state till the present day. Unable to cope up the ant-incumbency factor in the 2001 state polls he aligned with BJP by forsaking his Jamiat allies. The result was disastrous—Congress wining 71 seats and forming the government led by Tarun Gogoi.
(The writer is a freelancer based in Assam)
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