Guwahati, Aug. 11: Former Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi today accused the BJP-led government in the state as one being run by the RSS.
Calling Sarbananda Sonowal "a spineless chief minister", he said the state government is taking policy-level decisions according to diktats of the RSS.
"The RSS is directly interfering in the functioning of the BJP-led government in the state," Gogoi said.
To buttress his point, he referred to a meeting between Sonowal and RSS leaders here yesterday, claiming that in that meeting the RSS took stock of functioning of the state government.
Senior RSS leaders Krishna Gopal and Basistha Bujarbaruah, central BJP leaders Ram Madhav and Ram Lal besides president of the BJP's Assam unit, Ranjeet Kumar Dass, were present in the meeting.
Gogoi also came down heavily on chief secretary V.K. Pipersenia for being present there.
"The chief secretary had briefed the RSS leaders about the functioning of the government and by doing so he had violated the All India Services (Conduct) Rules. Pipersenia should be suspended for that," the former chief minister said.
He alleged that Pipersenia, who will retire on August 31, was given three-month extension by the state government on the direction of the RSS.
Gogoi slammed the BJP government in the state also for its decision to name 22 model colleges after Jan Sangh leader and BJP ideologue Deendayal Upadhyaya and asked why the colleges should not be named after eminent personalities of Assam.
"Not many people in the state knew about Upadhyaya and he had no noteworthy contribution towards the state," Gogoi said.
"Upadhyaya may be a leader for the BJP, but he was definitely not a people's leader. The BJP is forcibly trying to project him as a leader of the stature of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru."
"People accused us of naming government schemes and institutions after Nehru-Gandhi family, but contrary to that we had named many institutions after local personalities. The inter-sate bus terminus (ISBT) here is named after Rupnath Brahma, the trade centre after Maniram Dewan, stadiums after Tarun Ram Phookan, Bhogeswar Phukanani and B.P. Chaliha and the University of Health Sciences after the name of Srimanta Sankaradeva," Gogoi said.
