‘Assam cops found wanting’: Kharge writes to Amit Shah on Rahul’s security issues

NEW DELHI: Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has asked Union home minister Amit Shah to intervene to ensure the safety of Rahul Gandhi in Assam, saying there had been multiple instances where the state police allowed Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) activists to breach his security cordon and endanger the security of the Congress leader and his team.

The Congress president, who wrote to Amit Shah late on Tuesday, listed five instances in which the Assam Police did not provide adequate security to Gandhi, who is leading the 6,600km Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra. On Wednesday, he also shared a copy of the letter on X, formerly Twitter.

“In all the troubling events mentioned above, the Assam Police has systematically stood by and/or allowed BJP workers to come closer and closer to the convoy of Shri Rahul Gandhi, breaching his security corner, endangering his physical security and that of his team,” Kharge said in the letter, pointing that none of the miscreants had been arrested and an investigation was yet to initiated in several instances.

Gandhi’s yatra first entered Assam on January 18 but passed through Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya over two days before re-entering Assam on Tuesday. The yatra will remain in Assam till January 25 when it will move into West Bengal.

Kharge’s letter to the Union home minister came hours after the Assam Police put up barricades to prevent the yatra from proceeding to a busy area in Guwahati, citing potential traffic disruptions. Congress workers clashed with the police and broke through barricades on Tuesday, leading the police to book Rahul Gandhi and other party leaders.

The Congress president’s letter did not refer to Tuesday’s clash but focused on five incidents involving party workers of the ruling BJP. “As the risk increases, and as the Yatra proceeds as planned, we request your intervention to ensure that the Chief Minister of Assam and the Director General of Police, Assam ensure that no such untoward incident takes place which may lead to grave personal injury to Shri. Rahul Gandhi or any members of the Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra,” Kharge said in his letter to Shah.

Listing the incidents during which security issues were faced by Gandhi, Kharge said that the Assam Police was found protecting the posters of the BJP in Amguri, Sibsagar district on January 18, the first day of the yatra in Assam. instead of ensuring its safe passage.

The following day, “miscreants associated with the BJP” were caught defacing and taking down posters and hoardings of the yatra in Lakhimpur district, he said.

Later, when the yatra returned from Arunachal Pradesh, there was “another outrageous attack” in Sonitpur district, where chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma’s brother is the local superintendent of police, Kharge said.

“He (Sonitput SP) watched to see that BJP workers attacked and manhandled the Indian National Congress Social Media team, along with our General Secretary Shri. Jairam Ramesh. Shri Ramesh’s car was attacked, while miscreants shouting anti-BJNY (Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra) slogans, tearing off the BJNY sticker on the vehicle, and attempting to throw water on the passengers inside,” the Congress chief said.

“On the same day in Sonitpur district, the BJP’s district party workers approached and blocked Shri. Rahul Gandhi’s convoy. The BJP’s workers then physically assaulted the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee President Shri Bhupen Borah, resulting in him bleeding profusely,” he said.

On January 22, in Nagaon district, BJP workers blocked Gandhi’s convoy, coming extremely close to him, and creating an extremely unsafe situation, Kharge alleged.

The yatra, which comes a year after the Bharat Jodo Yatra, is the last major public outreach programme by the Congress before this year’s general elections and will be primarily undertaken on bus. The route will cover 100 Lok Sabha seats and 337 assembly seats across 15 states, and end on March 20 in Mumbai.