Statement on Hindi speaking misinterpreted: Tarun Gogoi

GUWAHATI: With BJP launching massive counter attack for Assam chief minister, Tarun Gogoi’s “Hindi speaking” jibe on BJP leaders, Gogoi said that his statement on Hindi-speaking people has been twisted and wrongly interpreted to give it a different colour by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and BJP General Secretary Ram Madhav.
BJP has announced protest outside state assembly on December 9 to protest against the Gogoi’s remark on December 9.

Gogoi said, “I have never uttered anything against the Hindi speaking people. My statement has been twisted out of context by Union Minister Venkaiah Naidu and other BJP leaders to give it a different colour. In fact, what I said was, the State unit of BJP has become a Hindi-centric party wholly dominated by Hindi speaking leaders”.

BJP’s national general secretary, Ram Madhav argued that Gogoi’s comment is an example of intolerance. “If Gogoi is so averse to Hindi speaking why is he out to rope in Bihar election key strategist Prashant Kishor for Assam polls?”

Gogoi said that he has been all along safeguarding the interests of the Hindi-speaking people in the State during the past 14 years of his Government.

The Chief Minister said that his Government would soon constitute a Development Council for Hindi-speaking people. The Chief Minister said that he has been heading the Rashtrabhasa Prachar Samiti and taking steps to promote Hindi language, besides taking part in Hindi literary meets.

“In my entire political career spanning several decades during which I was the AICC in-charge for Bihar and UP, I have been all along working for the interests of all sections of people, including the Hindi-speaking people.”

Gogoi said that his Council of Ministers comprises representatives from different communities, including Hindi-speaking people. “My Council of Ministers consists of representatives from different communities, including Hindi-speaking people. Even my Parliamentary Secretary is a Hindi-speaking person. Unlike the BJP party dominated by Hindi-speaking leaders whose writ runs on our spineless local BJP leaders who more often remain mute for their petty interests, our Hindi-speaking leaders in the Congress party only advice us on important issues but in no way diktat terms,” he added.

Gogoi accused BJP's national functionaries of trying to impose Hindi pronunciations, while referring to Assamese. "BJP's Assam in-charge Mahendra Singh has referred to Srimanta Sankardeva (Vaishnavite saint) as Baba Sankardeo, which is totally unacceptable. All these leaders do not even know how to pronounce Assamese names. They call former BJP state president Sidhartha Bhattacharya as Sidharth, present president Sarbananda Sonowal as Sonwal and Himanta Biswa Sarma as Hemant Biswa Karma. Actually the problem lies with these BJP leaders is that they do not understand the local sentiments and issues.”

Former minister and BJP leader Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “Let the congress leaders explain as who is Sonia and Rahul Gandhi and from which constituency they are elected. Tarun Gogoi must explain who Sanjay Singh is. Singh was given congress ticket to contest Rajya Sabha election from Assam.” Singh Raja of Amethi and former Sultanpur MP, Sanjay Singh was elected to Upper house from Assam in 2014.

BJP state unit president and chairman of campaign committee, Sarbananda Sonowal said BJP here is led by local leadership. “I am an indigenous person and with BJP, where is the question of outsider”.