High-voltage drama, accusations, attacks, and FIRs mark the ‘Nyay Yatra’ in Assam.

As the ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ came to an end in Assam on Thursday, the eight-day journey continued to be filled with plenty of exciting moments, including a confrontation between Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The “Nyay Yatra,” also known as the “justice march,” received a lot of attention after Gandhi referred to Sarma as “the most corrupt chief minister of India.” However, the march encountered obstacles even before the actual program began. These obstacles included the cancellation of clearances for two public sites in Jorhat and Dhemaji to be used for night halts.

In order to make full use of this opportunity, the Congress party launched accusations of a “undemocratic attitude” on the part of the government of Assam, which is governed by the BJP, and arranged private grounds for the purposes.The ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ was marked with high drama for the reason that Gandhi was not allowed to advance towards the birthplace of the famous Vaishnav saint Srimanta Sankardeva in the Nagaon region of Assam on the day that the consecration ritual of the Ram temple took place.As soon as Gandhi arrived in Assam from Nagaland on January 18, he immediately began criticizing the ruling dispensation and making allegations that the state may have the “most corrupt government” and the “most corrupt CM” in the country. This prompted Sarma to launch a counterattack within a few hours, referring to the Gandhi family as “the most corrupt” family in the country.

It is possible that the government of Assam is the most corrupt in all of India. It is hardly a secret that this is taking place… In Assam, corruption is a pervasive problem. Gandhi stated this during two public meetings that took place in Sivasagar and Jorhat. “We all know that perhaps the most corrupt chief minister in India is the chief minister of Assam,” Gandhi remarked.

Gandhi made the accusation that Sarma’s entire family is involved in corrupt activities at another public address that he gave in Jorhat town. All of his family members, including his wife and children, are implicated in some form of corruption. Considering that he is a commodity that can be bought, he believes that money can buy the people of Assam.

In the later part of the day, Sarma referred to the Gandhi family as “the most corrupt” family in the nation.

As far as I am concerned, the Gandhi family is the most corrupt family in the entire nation.

“Not only are they corrupt, but they are also an exact clone. In spite of the fact that their family name is not even Gandhi, they are carrying their respective duplicate names. If someone is carrying a duplicate licence, I am able to capture them, but I am not aware of what happens if they are carrying a duplicate title if they are caught. They are roaming because of this,” he went on to say.

This established the stage for the subsequent seven days, during which several First Information Reports (FIRs) were filed against Gandhi and other leaders of the Congress party at various police stations.

Assam Congress head was beaten leading to facial injury, attacks on Yatra vehicles, pulling apart banners and hoardings and a crowd shouting Jai Sri Ram slogans approaching “dangerously close” to the Wayanad MP.

The ‘Bharat Jodo Nyay Yatra’ and its organizers, including KB Byju, the Chief of the Assam Congress Bhupen Kumar Borah, and others, were accused of diverting from their approved itinerary within Jorhat town, which resulted in a “chaotic situation” in the area. A First Information Report (FIR) was filed against them on the very first day of the event.On January 20, senior party leaders reported that members of the Congress party were beaten, their vehicles were damaged, and all of the Yatra hoardings and posters were destroyed by miscreants in North Lakhimpur town, which is the district seat of Lakhimpur.

Borah was punched by unidentified individuals on January 21, which resulted in him bleeding from his nose. In a separate incident, the automobile of Jairam Ramesh, the central head of the party, was also attacked in Sonitpur district.

During the attack, Ramesh posted on X that “an unruly BJP crowd” ripped Yatra stickers off the windshield, threw water, and shouted anti-Yatra slogans. He also claimed that the attack was carried out by a few individuals.

It was forbidden for Gandhi to visit the birthplace of Mahapurush Srimanta Sankardeva, which was located in Bardowa and was known as Batadrava Thaan, on the fifth day of his Yatra in Assam. While he was sitting on the road, he sang bhajans with artists and argued with police officers, who, to his surprise, permitted other Congress leaders to attend the sacred area.

However, the tension reached Guwahati when Congress workers smashed police barricades in the presence of Gandhi and other leaders. These obstacles had been set up after Sarma threatened to file a First Information Report (FIR) if the Yatra attempted to approach the major city.

There was a confrontation between the party workers and the police, who deployed a light lathicharge to contain the situation. During the altercation, quite a few members of the police force and party workers sustained injuries.

Gandhi made the statement that they “can break barricades, but will not break law” when the Congress workers dismantled the barrier. However, they did not carry further with their plan and instead walked along the approved path along the National Highway 27 in Guwahati.

As a result of this incident, the Chief Minister was compelled to describe the behavior as “Naxalite” in nature and provided the police the instructions to file a case. The Guwahati Police Department filed a First Information Report (FIR) against Gandhi and other politicians for “wanton acts of violence” on their own initiative.

Due to the fact that Sarma does not like to “politicize” the matter prior to the general elections, he even made the announcement that the “instigators,” which includes Gandhi, will be detained after the Lok Sabha elections.

On the last day, Gandhi spoke to Badruddin Ajmal, a member of the AIUDF, in his home turf. He referred to him and his party as the “B team” of the BJP and made the accusation that both parties support each other during elections.

During the Yatra, the Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge wrote a letter to the Union Home Minister Amit Shah, stating that the Assam Police had become silent spectators and asked that they provide adequate security. This was in response to the sequence of incidents that occurred.After beginning in Manipur on January 14, the Yatra, which is being led by Rahul Gandhi, is scheduled to reach its conclusion in Mumbai on March 20.

The portion of the march that took place in Assam, which began on January 18 and ended on Thursday, covered a distance of 833 kilometers and encompassed 17 districts.

Over the course of 67 days, the Yatra is scheduled to travel a distance of 6,713 kilometers, traversing 110 districts across 15 states.