POLITICS AROUND AN ICON'S DEATH

The emotional call for justice from millions in Assam over Zubeen Garg's death has forced the BJP government to pander to public sentiment. Six months before the state goes to polls, the Opposition has seized on the issue too

- BY KAUSHIK DEKA

"DON'T VOTE FOR US IN 2026 IF WE FAIL TO DELIVER JUSTICE FOR ZUBEEN GARG." With that one line, delivered barely a week after the death of musician Zubeen Garg on September 19, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma turned mourning into a political gamble. What began as collective grief over the untimely demise of a wildly popular cultural figure had morphed into protests and conspiracy theories. Sensing the mood, Sarma tied his own fate to a probe that could yet prove to be his undoing. Sarma's critics accuse him of politicising grief; his supporters say he's been forced into damage control by an Opposition doing the same. The truth likely resides in between. Six months before Assam votes, its most adored artiste has become a political fault line.

On that day in September, Zubeen, 52, collapsed while swimming off Singapore’s St John’s Island. He was visiting as a headliner at the Northeast India Festival. Singapore authorities ruled the death a drowning. A video on social media showed Zubeen joyfully jumping into the sea from a yacht wearing a life vest, only to remove it and reenter the water minutes before tragedy struck. Yet for millions of Assamese, this explanation felt woefully inadequate. The grief snowballed into an emotional crusade to uncover the truth behind Zubeen’s death, coalescing into a social media campaign hashtagged #JusticeforZubeenGarg.

Sarma moved with alacrity. His efforts to court Zubeen’s teeming Gen Z following bordered on the theatrical—proclaiming himself among his “top ten fans”, personally receiving the body, performing a Zubeen song for the cameras and orchestrating funeral arrangements. This after he had initially dismissed talk of foul play, citing the Singapore authorities’ findings.

THE PUBLIC OUTCRY