Himanta questions Congress on ‘missing NE’ from India map in social media post

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Saturday lashed out at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi claiming that the North Eastern region is missing from a map of India shared by the party on social media.

Sarma shared a screenshot of an animated video from the official ‘X’ handle of the Congress with pictures of cartoon characters which resemble Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Rahul Gandhi with a map where North East is not visible.

“Seems the Congress party has secretly struck a deal to sell the entire land of North East to some neighbouring country,” Sarma wrote on X.

The map carries a toon of Gandhi in the middle while the screenshot is captioned with an imaginary dialogue between Modi and Gandhi, inspired by the popular “Mere pass maa hai” conversation from the 1975 Bollywood movie ‘Deewar’.

The caption has Modi stating that he has ED, police, government, money, and friends, and questions what Gandhi has, to which the latter replies that the entire nation is with him.

Highlighting the “missing” North Eastern region, Sarma added, “Is this why Rahul went abroad? Or has the party given membership to Sharjeel Imam?” Iman is a student activist who was arrested in a case under the stringent Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) for alleged conspiracy behind the 2020 riots in the national capital during the anti-Citizenship Amendment Act. He has been in custody since January 28, 2020, in the case.

Sarma has been locked in a war of words on ‘X’ with Congress’ deputy leader in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi since Wednesday on the issue of his wife’s company allegedly given a credit subsidy of Rs 10 crore by the central government under a scheme.

Rejecting the charges, the CM said he was willing to accept any punishment, including retirement from public life, if there is any evidence that they had received the subsidy, while his wife has threatened to file a Rs 10 crore defamation case against Gogoi.

Another controversy involving the CM’s family had surfaced recently when an Assamese web portal published a report alleging that a substantial parcel of agricultural land measuring over 50 bighas at Darigaji village in Nagaon was reclassified as industrial land within a month after it was bought by his family members.