[Interview] ‘Assam Entered A Golden Phase In 2016, This Phase Will Continue With People’s Blessings’: Sarbananda Sonowal

Sarbananda Sonowal is not the typical politician. Soft-spoken and mild-mannered, he is known as a thorough gentleman who never raises his voice and has never uttered any harsh word against even his most bitter critic. 

Sonowal, who served as Chief Minister of Assam for one term (2016-2021) and is the current Minister of AYUSH, Ports, Shipping and Waterways, is the BJP candidate from the prestigious Dibrugarh Lok Sabha seat. 

He took time out of his hectic schedule to speak to Swarajya on a range of issues. Here are some excerpts from an hour-long interview:

Swarajya: You had been a Chief Minister for five years and Union Minister for three years. What have been your biggest achievements?

Sarbananda Sonowal (SS): One of them was the clean-up of the massive corruption in the Assam Public Service Commission. Under the earlier Congress regimes, jobs were being sold for cash. Because of this, meritorious youth could not enter the state civil services and Assam was deprived of the services of honest, dedicated officers. 

But we stopped this and took strong actions against those people involved in this dirty practice. It ultimately resulted in a tremendous transformation. I created a transparent system to conduct the civil services examination, and this has brought in some talented boys from the poorest of poor families into the civil services. They could have never joined the civil services earlier because they couldn’t afford to pay huge bribes. 

We now have young men and women from even families of tea garden mazdoors getting into the civil services now. This has generated confidence among the common masses. Now, even the poorest can dream of a bright future. 

Poaching of rhinos was another major issue. Hundreds of rhinos were killed, especially in Kaziranga National Park, when the Congress was in power. The Congress was responsible for this. 

Immediately after taking over as CM, I convened a meeting of district and wildlife authorities. We found that huge tracts of land in wildlife reserves had been encroached upon by illegal settlers. These encroachers were harbouring poachers. So we removed all the encroachments. 

Then we launched awareness drives about the importance of wildlife and drafted local youth in the task of conservation. And we cracked down hard on poachers. 

Assam is known for its xatras (Vaishnavite monasteries and centres of learning and culture). But a lot of land of these xatras had been encroached upon by illegal settlers. We have evicted them and sanctioned good sums of money to help the xatras undertake important work for preservation and propagation of Assamese culture. 

I was, in fact I still am, Minister of AYUSH, Ports, Shipping and Waterways. AYUSH is now a global success story under the visionary leadership of Prime Minister Modi. A lot of new initiatives have been launched that will benefit the people of India in terms of physical and mental wellbeing. 

Of the 220-odd ports in the country, 12 are major ones under the Ministry of Ports and Shipping. In 2014, the cargo handling capacity of these ports was limited to 774 million metric tons per annum. Now, in just 10 years’ time, it has jumped to 1680 million metric tonnes. This growth is because of the ‘Sagar Mala’ project that the PM launched in 2015. Under this programme, we have identified 804 projects across the country for the modernisation, mechanisation and digitisation for port-led industrialisation. 

Because of our devoted efforts, now India has become one of the leading maritime nations in the world. According to the World Bank Logistics Performance Report, India’s position improved from 44th to 22nd among the 139 maritime nations in the world.

Inland waterways and shipping has been a priority area for this government under PM Modi. Out of the 111 national waterways, 24 are navigable now. Three million tonnes of cargo moved through these waterways in 2014. Last year, 126 million tonnes of cargo moved through these waterways. So this is a marvellous success story. 

Earlier, when we talked of river cruises, we only thought of Europe and other countries. But the Banaras to Dibrugarh cruise through 3200 kilometres--the longest river cruise in the world--was started by us and it has become a phenomenal success. PM Modi has told us that India should become the hub of river cruises, coastal cruises and even ocean cruises. 

Swarajya: Coming to issues in Assam, the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) had triggered huge trouble in Assam just four years ago. But it is hardly an issue now. Why?

SS: People have realised that the Congress and others misled them. They were told one to two crore migrants are going to come and settle in Assam. That was a totally false propaganda and the Congress and some other organisations were trying to gain cheap political mileage.

It has always been the dirty design of the Congress to create disturbances. But ultimately, people realised their truth. The CAA will have no impact on the indigenous people of Assam, and people are thus not bothered about the CAA. 

Swarajya: Your main rival in this election, Lurinjyoti Gogoi of the Assam Jatiya Parishad (AJP) is being supported by the Congress. Gogoi was a leader of the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) which had declared the Congress as a ‘permanent enemy’ of Assam. How are people taking this AJP-Congress alliance?

SS: The Congress has always ignored Assam and the Northeast. In 1962, when China attacked India, people of Assam made desperate pleas to Prime Minister Nehru to save them from the Chinese, but Nehru simply said that though his heart goes out to the people of Assam, he is unable to protect them. 

This is an example of supreme betrayal, the highest level of betrayal of  Assam and the Assamese people by the Congress. 

During successive agitations by the people of Assam, like the refinery agitation, language agitation, food agitation and the anti-foreigners’ agitation, the Congress took a stand against Assam’s interests and tried to suppress these agitations by brute force. 

Sukapha founded the Ahom kingdom by integrating all communities and tribes. He had stressed that unity should be the biggest strength of the Assamese. For over 600 years, people of all communities lived harmoniously in Assam. 

But the Congress, through its divide and rule policy, created disharmony in Assamese society. That is why the Congress had been declared an enemy of the Assamese people. And people will reject the AJP-Congress tie-up.  

Swarajya: What are the primary issues that you are focusing on in your campaign?

SS: Development, peace and unity. Because Prime Minister Modi has set a target to make India one of the top three economies in the world in the next five years. To achieve this target, I will have to take everybody along. 

Assam also wants to become one of the most powerful states in the country. So my appeal to the voters is to please come forward and join the mission of speeding up our scale of growth.

Swarajya: How has Assam changed since the BJP came to power in the state in 2016?

SS: Assam has witnessed revolutionary changes in so many sectors. Infrastructure, condition of roads and bridges have improved. New institutions have come up. AIIMS has come up and we now have 24 medical colleges.

Other topnotch institutions on agricultural research, the National Institute of Design and many more have come up. This is benefiting the youth. 

The agriculture sector has got a huge boost with the introduction of MSP for many crops. A huge number of schemes have been directed towards farmers. The working and living conditions of tea garden workers has improved tremendously. Healthcare infrastructure has improved and whereas even ambulances were hard to requisition in the past under Congress governments, Assam’s healthcare is at par with the best in the country. 

People used to suffer due to floods every year. But very strong embankments are being constructed and roads are being built on top of these embankments.

We put a lot of stress on good governance and all government employees, right from the Chief Secretary and the DGP to the peon and the constable, now know that they have to keep the welfare of the common people topmost in their minds and that they have to serve the people. This has made governance responsive and responsible. 

I can say with complete honesty that Assam entered a golden phase in 2016 and this phase will continue, thanks to the blessings of the crores of people of Assam who have benefited.