Assam Assembly election campaign has come to an end and the fate of the candidates will be decided on Thursday. Assam is known for its mildness and mixed culture, but this time political bitterness has mixed in the election atmosphere. Even though the waves of Brahmaputra are calm, such floods of words were released from the election platforms, which disintegrated ‘political decorum’. This time in the assembly elections, the word ‘decency’ disappeared from the dictionary of the leaders. Words like ‘Miya’, ‘Mughal’ and ‘infiltrators’ were not only used in the rallies, but the level of language reached personal attacks. In the war of words, not only attacks were made on each other but political decorum was violated. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma has been targeting Congress from the beginning on the pretext of Gaurav Gogoi’s wife, but now when Congress made the same political move against Himanta, his temper became high. In this way the fight in Assam has reached their wives and the entire election campaign remained confined between Mia-Bibi and Muslims.
The credibility of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is at stake in the elections to be held on April 9 in Assam. The challenge before him is to return BJP to power with majority on his own on the basis of the work done during his five-year tenure. With the help of Himanta Sarma, BJP is trying to achieve a hat-trick of power in Assam and they are facing a tough challenge of getting votes on the basis of the performance of their government. Congress had entered the election field in Assam by putting forward Gaurav Gogoi to end the ten years of political exile in Assam. In such a situation, CM Himanta Sarma was cornering the most prominent faces of Congress, Gaurav Gogoi and his wife, accusing them of Pakistani connections. In such a situation, just before Assam voting and two days before the end of the election campaign, when Congress started personal attacks on Himanta, he became furious. In this way, the entire election of Assam remained entangled in the matter of Mia-Bibi and they kept targeting each other in the name of wife.
How Assam’s election fight reached the point of abuse
Chief Minister Himanta Sarma has been putting the most prominent faces of Congress, Gaurav Gogoi and his wife in the dock, accusing them of Pakistani connections, and in response, Congress raised the issue of three passports of Himanta’s wife and a political battle broke out. Congress spokesperson Pawan Kheda accused Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s wife of holding passports of 3 countries and illegally making properties in many countries. After this, Himant Sarma became furious and crossed all limits. Himant Biswa Sarma said that he will find KF Pawan Kheda even from the underworld. After this, Himant said, ‘Rahul Gandhi is mad and Pawan Kheda is even more mad than him. I will convert him from Pawan Kheda to Pawan Peda. During this, Himanta Biswa Sarma also used some abusive words, which we cannot even mention in the story. In this way, Himanta used wrong words against Congress, which has tarnished political decorum.
‘Issues’ were left behind and ‘abuses’ became the headline.
This time in the election campaign of Assam, basic issues like development, floods and employment are lurking somewhere in the corner. They were replaced by personal attacks, communal polarization and offensive metaphors. In the rallies, Himanta kept using words like ‘Miya’, ‘Mughal’ and ‘infiltrator’ for Muslims. These words are no longer limited to identity politics only, rather it was served in a derogatory tone.
Abuses were used in the election campaign by both the ruling party and the opposition. Aggressive words like ‘mita denge’, ‘dekh lenge’ and ‘uproot’ were widely used. Rahul Gandhi had said that Himanta Biswa Sarma is the most corrupt Chief Minister of India, who works to spread hatred the most. Himanta is saying such things because he knows that the fierce lions of Congress will not leave him, not even after apologizing.
Why did the words of leaders become poisonous?
In Assam, more hate speech has spread on social media than Ground Zero. The activism of the IT cell has clipped the controversial statements of the leaders and made them viral in such a way that only trolling has replaced the arguments. Leaders think that the harsher they speak, the more headlines they will get. This was the reason that the war of words continued from both sides against each other. This time in the war of words in Assam, political decorum has been torn apart because for many big faces this election is like ‘do or die’. When there is a fear of defeat, the dignity of language is often sacrificed first. In elections, it is easier to seek votes by calling someone an ‘enemy’ rather than discussing policy.