Crisis, Confusion And Congress in Assam

Were the Assam politics a play in the theater, the State Congresswould now be the play character who would forget the script and then start blaming the lighting.

The latest episode with Bhupen Borah has all the elements of the political tragicomedy: suspense, nostalgia, emotional monologues, an unavoidable question: who is running this show? To the party which used to play Assam like a well-practised orchestra, to-day, Congress sometimes seems like a band which is only beginning to tune up the instruments in the middle of the music as the listeners are gently shoving out of the hall.

The predicament of Bhupen Borah is not as much of a defiant act, but an old employee circling the office asking, Does anybody know what we do today? The muddiness is not loud or theatrical, it is of the awkward silent type, where conferences are held, things spoken, and yet plenty of people appear to be unaware of what exactly the scheme is.

Meanwhile, in the political cross-road, the Bharatiya Janata Party led by Himanta Biswa Sarma seems to have been the over-prepared student who has already written the exam and the rest of the students are only shopping around their pens. There are hardly any reasons of differences: one side with the posturing air of certainties, the other one with the agenda that is subject to discussion.

Congress in Assam has become a WhatsApp group where everybody has a point and no one is ready to give consent and the group administrator has sound off notifications. The leaders talk ideology, workers talk survival, voters are not fully convinced that the party is returning, or it is merely having an internally long-standing discussion.

The repetition, of course, is the humour. A top officer is never content with what is happening and every few months he/she has another significant meeting and they all vow that everything is okay and in political terms that does not imply that everything is okay.

The highest possible exit of Borah is therefore not so shocking but is more predictable. The fact is that, had there been a loyalty card of Assam politics, the present day congress could now be offered a 10 th defection free offer.

But party, jests notwithstanding, there is something pathos-comic in a party that has still the weight of its great past and fumbles at its present. It is like someone was wearing an outdated crown yet his or her glasses had been lost. The legacy remains; the way is obscure.

The accidental comedy however is it. The congress still claims that it is restructuring, refocusing and reengaging. But each time it is visible in society points to the fact that it is mainly rearranging its disorientations, resetting its divisions and reconciling not until a person threatens to quit.

And Bhupen Borah? He is the protagonist of this political satire, just like the character that is finally willing to raise the question that the whole world is wondering: Are we actually going somewhere or do we simply go round the same plot?

 It is tragic that even the party itself does not have an obvious answer.

The political drama will continue until Congress in Assam makes its choice on whether it prefers being a feel-good movie or a lesson. Something new, something new, same play, crisis, confusion and a cast yet to learn their lines.

ALSO READ: "I Was Sidelined Overnight": Bhupen Borah Opens Up on Congress Turmoil