The Master Strategist

The Assam chief minister enjoys popularity both as an administrator and a politician despite his relentless anti-Muslim rhetoric

- Snigdhendu Bhattacharya

“HIMANTA [Biswa Sarma] is right. All these lungi-clad Muslims should be kicked out of Assam,” says Shibananda Talukdar, who is in his 40s. His friend Biswajit Phukan chips in. “We, Assamese, don’t want to be run over by these Bangladeshis with whom we share no connection.” Talukdar calls himself a self-employed professional. Phukan introduces himself as a medical representative and an avid biker. 

They are sharing a table over coffee and snacks at a café in the Kahilipara neighbourhood of Guwahati, Assam’s capital. Neither of them are from Guwahati. Work has brought them to the city from the suburbs. They insist that, to the best of their understanding, Guwahati and its suburbs overwhelmingly share the same sentiment–Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma “talks sense”.

Such pro-Biswa Sarma voices can be heard in all parts of Assam, from Dibrugarh in the east to Barpeta in the west and Silchar in the south. It is the Parliamentary election, in which re-electing Prime Minister Narendra Modi to India’s top job is the Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) priority. BJP leaders are talking about Modi’s development model. But in public discussions, the 55-year-old Biswa Sarma eclipses everyone else. 

“In Assam, Biswa Sarma, not Modi, is the biggest polariser,” says a government schoolteacher, a Bengali-speaking Muslim living in Barpeta town of western Assam. He does not wish to be named.