Assam's Education and Health minister, Dr Himanta Bishwa Sharma on Tuesday fired a broadside at the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA)- anti-talks faction- for trying to malign his image by stating that he was a former member of the non-military (political wing) of the outfit.
Dr Sharma alleged collusion among a section of frustrated political opponents and the ULFA in generating such a baseless statement. The minister criticised the opposition Asom Gana Parishad, Bharatiya Janata Party and an NGO Krishak Mukti Sangram Samity (KMSS) for pointing an accusing finger at him on the basis of ULFA's statement without waiting for his reaction. "What will the AGP and BJP do when the ULFA issues similar statements against their leaders for denying to pay money demanded by the outfit?" Dr Sharma asked. "There are political parties and organisations for whom what ULFA says is as holy as Upanishads," the minister quipped.
The minister stated that during the last 20 years he was a member of All Assam Students Union (AASU) and later the Indian National Congress. During the period the ULFA had even posed a threat to his life and also wrote against him in the outfit's mouthpiece 'Freedom' ('Swadhinata').
"During this period the ULFA never mentioned that I was a member of the outfit," Dr Sharma said. He said there was no credibility in a terrorist organisation like the ULFA and people of Assam were well aware of ULFA's design of resorting to lies and vilification campaigns. "This is the outfit that lied after killing NGO official Sanjoy Ghose. The same ULFA also denied its hand after killing school children in a bomb blast in Dhemaji," he said.
"Indian nationalism and a goal to achieve a developed Assam are the driving force behind my political life. I will never be deviated from my path by such design of the ULFA, AGP, BJP and KMSS," he said.
The ULFA (anti-talks) in an email issued to media on Monday claimed that Dr Himanta Bishwa Sharma was once a member of the outfit's 'non-military (political) wing'. The statement criticised certain 'shallow comments' made by Assam's health and education minister Dr Himanta Bishwa Sharma against 'ULFA and its so called revolution, extortion operations'.
The ULFA stated the minister had once again exposed his lack of knowledge about the "Assam's freedom struggle against colonial Indian rule".
In an immediate reaction Dr Sharma had said, "The ULFA must have gone mad to make such a ridiculous statement. I wonder why they have taken so long (about 15 years) to give me such a big certificate. All along they have been accused me of being an agent of 'colonial Indian rulers and suddenly they have made a former member'. Dr Sharma has been a minister in Assam since the year 2001 when the Congress party came to power.
Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi also dismissed the ULFA statement as false. He said, "In my knowledge, no one in my ministry was a member of the ULFA. Why the ULFA has taken over ten years to disclose such information. We have been in power since 2001."
"We are always happy to see our former members making it big in their personal life," the ULFA statement said.