'Outsider' Manmohan Singh became Assam's 'own Prime Minister'

In the five consecutive terms as Rajya Sabha member from Assam till 2019 and as the Prime Minister between 2014 and 2019, Manmohan Singh, however, own many hearts in Assam by taking significant steps.

Guwahati: A bohiragoto or an outsider was seen with suspicion in Assam for long, mainly due to the state's long tryst with the problem of "illegal migration" and the six-year-long anti-foreigners movement, popularly called Assam Agitation, between 1979 and 1985.

Manmohan Singh was literally an outsider in Assam politics in 1991, when he was first elected as Rajya Sabha member from the state. In the five consecutive terms as Rajya Sabha member from Assam till 2019 and as the Prime Minister between 2004 and 2014, Manmohan Singh, however, won many hearts in Assam by taking significant steps that took the state forward in resolving the state's vexed foreigner problem.

Many, in fact, openly called Singh "our own" Prime Minister as the UPA government in 2005 decided to update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and began the process in 2013. A "final draft" of the NRC that left out 19.06 lakh applicants (for failing to prove their pre-1971 stay in Assam), was released in 2018 but the NRC process remained stalled due to petitions in the Supreme Court.

The Assam Agitation ended with the signing of the Assam Accord between the agitators and the Rajiv Gandhi-led Congress government on August 14, 1985. But the Accord's most significant clause, the NRC update with March 24, 1971 as the cut-off date, remained pending, resulting frequent protests, mainly by the All Assam Students' Union (AASU). The AASU leaders, however, openly thanked Singh after his government began the NRC work.

As Singh breathed his last on Thursday at 92, AASU advisor Samujjal Kumar Bhattacharjya condoled his demise calling him one of the distinguished sons of the country.

A resident of Punjab, Singh officially became a tenant in the then Assam CM Hiteswar Saikia's house at Sarumotoria in Guwahati in 1991, when he was first elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam. It was when Congress decided to introduce Singh into politics and induct him as the finance minister. Singh family also got their names in the electoral tolls transfered from New Delhi to Assam. Singh and his wife even cast their votes in Guwahati.

Many among those who called Singh "an outsider," meanwhile, became silent.

It was during Singh's tenure, the foundation was laid for the Assam Gas Crackers Project, another outcome of the Assam Agitaiton. He also speedtracked the Bogibeel bridge over the Brahmaputra river, which was also agreed in the Assam Accord.

"Assam will always remember him as own Prime Minister for the significant steps and projects taken up during his tenure as PM to make the future of the state better," Debabrata Saikia, Leader of the Congress Legislature party in Assam and son of Hiteswar Saikia, said after Singh's demise.

Singh also shared good ties with Tarun Gogoi, who had served as CM for three terms at a stretch between 2000 and 2016. Gogoi died in November 2020.

Singh's term as Rajya Sabha member from Assam, however, ended in 2019, when Congress decided to field him from Rajasthan as the party did not have the adequate number in the Assam Assembly to send him to the Upper House. Tarun Gogoi-led Congress in Assam lost power to BJP and its allies in 2016.