HIMANTA BISWA SARMA chief minister, Assam
Once called “dada” for his strongman approach, Sarma is now the more endearing “mama”, a change that came about after he became the chief minister.
Sarma is leading the BJP in the northeast and in an election year there was no better start for him than facilitating Nadda’s visit to the Maa Kamakhya Temple. Later they huddled in the party office to strategise the great number game for the BJP. Sarma has promised to deliver 22 of 25 Lok Sabha seats from the northeast.
After Nadda left for the airport the next day, Sarma settled down for an interview with THE WEEK. In a candid conversation at the secretariat, he shared his experience of handling politicians who rebelled, defected and changed the number games. “When I was with the Congress, we were deputed to various states to manage resorts” where such rebels were safeguarded, said Sarma. In 2022, he brought Eknath Shinde and company from Maharashtra to Guwahati after they rebelled against Uddhav Thackeray’s Shiv Sena.
Sarma is emerging as a master strategist for the BJP after spending 22 years in Congress. He predicted another decade of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a new political spectrum in the country. “Prime Minister Modi will cross 325 seats (in the Lok Sabha polls),” he said. Excerpts from the interview:
Q/ Assam has a long history of agitations. Do you think peace is settling in, finally?
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 28, 2024 من THE WEEK India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك ? تسجيل الدخول
هذه القصة مأخوذة من طبعة January 28, 2024 من THE WEEK India.
ابدأ النسخة التجريبية المجانية من Magzter GOLD لمدة 7 أيام للوصول إلى آلاف القصص المتميزة المنسقة وأكثر من 9,000 مجلة وصحيفة.
بالفعل مشترك? تسجيل الدخول
By- and large
The stakes are high in the assembly bypolls in Uttar Pradesh, which will see a direct face-off between the Samajwadi Party and the BJP
The price of surprise
Rajdeep Sardesai’s new book is a gripping election post-mortem that offers candid glimpses of Indian politics
Mother India, RELOADED
Like her grandmother Indira did in the 1960s, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is channelling her motherly instincts to win her electoral debut, in Wayanad
Olympics, 2036: Host and ghosts
The Indian Olympics Association (IOA) has sent the International Olympics Committee (IOC) its ‘letter of intent’ to host the Olympics in 2036—appositely enough the centenary of the very year, 1936, when Adolf Hitler hosted the Games in Berlin!
Bully in White House isn't bad news
Most of us claim to be nice people. We work hard, we give to charity, we love our families, we don’t cheat, we pay our taxes, we are kind, we respect teachers, we don’t jump red lights, we respect other faiths, we read to children, we believe in democracy, we cheer free speech, and we hate Donald Trump. We think all nice people do all these things.
William Dalrymple goes further back
Indian readers have long known William Dalrymple as the chronicler nonpareil of India in the early years of the British raj. His latest book, The Golden Road, is a striking departure, since it takes him to a period from about the third century BC to the 12th-13th centuries CE.
The bleat from the street
What with all the apps delivering straight to one’s doorstep, the supermarkets, the food halls and even the occasional (super-expensive) pop-up thela (cart) offering the woke from field-to-fork option, the good old veggie-market/mandi has fallen off my regular beat.
Courage and conviction
Justice A.M. Ahmadi's biography by his granddaughter brings out behind-the-scenes tension in the Supreme Court as it dealt with the Babri Masjid demolition case
EPIC ENTERPRISE
Gowri Ramnarayan's translation of Ponniyin Selvan brings a fresh perspective to her grandfather's magnum opus
Upgrade your jeans
If you don’t live in the top four-five northern states of India, winter means little else than a pair of jeans. I live in Mumbai, where only mad people wear jeans throughout the year. High temperatures and extreme levels of humidity ensure we go to work in mulmul salwars, cotton pants, or, if you are lucky like me, wear shorts every day.