Reacting sharply to VHP international general secretary Pravin Togadia’s speech here on Saturday, Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said he will not allow the VHP to distribute trishuls in the state.‘‘Togadia has made highly provocative speeches and wants to disturb communal harmony in the state. How can I allow him to come back again?’’ the Chief Minister said today.Togadia had not only announced that the VHP would provide trishuls to one lakh youth in the state before November 24, but also said that ‘‘secularism’’ should be dumped into river Brahmaputra in order to save Assam from being converted into an Islamic state. Gogoi said the VHP leader had crossed all limits in trying to disrupt peace in Assam. He took a dig at the BJP for waking up to the Bangladeshi influx issue just before the Lok Sabha elections. ‘‘Their eyes are on votes, nothing else,’’ he said.‘‘Togadia is out not just to insult the people of Assam but also desecrate the satras and belittle Assam’s national heroes like Lachit Barphukan and saint-reformers like Sankaradeva. He has no right to say that the concept of secularism should be dumped in the Brahmaputra. After all it is like dumping the Constitution,’’ Gogoi said.Terming the VHP as the ‘‘B’’ team of BJP, Gogoi also questioned how Union Minister and Guwahati BJP MP Bijoya Chakravarty could share the dais with someone who wanted to dump the Constitution into the Brahmaputra. ‘‘Haven’t Chakravarty taken the oath to uphold and protect the Constitution?’’ he asked. The Chief Minister also lambasted Togadia for failing to talk about the ‘‘basic’’ issues like floods, militancy and development. ‘‘People like him are not interested in actual development of the country. They are only out to foment trouble and communal tension,’’ he said.However, the Chief Minister is not alone in this tirade against Togadia. Though ideologically at loggerheads with Gogoi and the Congress, the All Assam Students’ Union (AASU) too has lambasted Togadia for his provocative speech and has asked him to refrain from communalising the issue of Bangladeshi influx. Warning Togadiya, AASU president Prabin Boro said the government should not allow persons like him to enter the state because they create a communal divide in the region.The AASU also took a dig at Togadia for trying to rope in the Vaishnavite Satras (monasteries) o f the state into his ‘‘evil design’’ and added that the VHP is trying to malign the age-old satra institutions which are held in high esteem by the Assamese people.
