Assam legends to Netaji, Tarun Gogoi claims blood legacy

Gogoi’s claims began in February 2014, when he credited Rahul Gandhi with the blood of Lachit Barphukan, the celebrated Assamese general who had inflicted a crushing defeat on the Mughal army in 1671, as well as Bir Chilarai, a Koch general of the 16th century who had reportedly conquered all of Assam and undivided Bengal.

Then in April 2014, Gogoi himself appropriated Lachit’s legacy. “I am happy to fight Narendra Modi. He is the BJP’s god. A simple man like me is fighting against the god because I have Lachit’s blood in me,” Gogoi said.

Ahead of the assembly elections this year, Gogoi has once again claimed he has Lachit’s blood. Local media reports have quoted him as also claiming to have the blood of Sukapha, founder of the Ahom kingdom. And last week, at a cultural programme of tea garden labourers near Kaziranga, Gogoi said he had the blood of the legendary adivasi leader Birsa Munda in him. Local media reports quoted Gogoi as claiming that he has the blood of Netaji Bose too.

It wasn’t a debate until he targeted BJP state president Sarbananda Sonowal. “Though he (Sonowal) claims to be a tribal, I doubt whether he has tribal blood in him. Tribal people don’t fall at others’ feet… How can such leaders serve the people?” Gogoi said recently and referred to a photograph, published in The Indian Express, of Sonowal touching the feet of Union minister Arun Jaitley.

This was when the BJP hit back. “I don’t think Gogoi has Lachit’s blood. If he had, the first thing he would have done is to deport Bangladeshi infiltrators and to hang poachers of Kaziranga rhinos,” said Himanta Biswa Sarma, a former Gogoi aide now with the BJP. And Sonowal said, “Sometimes he (Gogoi) has Lachit Barphukan’s blood, sometimes of Sukapha, sometimes of Chilarai. How can a person have different blood on different days?”

Guwahati MP Bijoya Chakravarty, former Union minister, gave her opinion on local TV last week. “It is dangerous for one person to have the blood of so many different persons,” she said. “It will one day cause Gogoi to explode, and the germs that will spread will cause contamination. He needs to urgently undergo a DNA test.”