Congress fumes as Assam govt drops Rajiv Gandhi's name from national park

Guwahati, Sep 2 (IANS) The Congress in Assam on Thursday slammed the BJP-led state government's decision to drop ‘Rajiv Gandhi from the name of Orang National Park, located around 120 kn from Guwahati.

Around a month after the Centre renamed the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna after hockey legend Dhyan Chand, the Assam government has decided to drop the former Prime Minister's name from the national park in northern Assam.

An Assam government official said on Thursday that the state cabinet at its meeting chaired by Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Wednesday night has decided to drop the name of Rajiv Gandhi to restore the original name of Orang National Park, following requests from the Adivasi (indigenous) groups in the state.

One of the seven national parks in Assam, the Orang National Park spread over an area of 79.28 sq km is among the top three rhino habitats which boasts of having the highest density of tigers in the country.

It was declared a wildlife sanctuary in 1985 and was upgraded to a national park in 1999. The previous Congress-led government (2001-2016) headed by late Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had renamed it as the Rajiv Gandhi Orang National Park.

The national park on the northern bank of Brahmaputra was declared a tiger reserve by the National Tiger Conservation Authority in March 2016.

reacting to the move, Assam Congress President Bhupen Kumar Borah on Thursday strongly condemned such "petty attitude of the BJP government".

"Just by changing the name of a park or an institution, they cannot wipe away the contributions of Rajiv Gandhi as the architect of future India.

"The computers and mobile phones that the BJP use today to further their agenda of rewriting history were made available to them through the IT revolution brought about by Rajiv Gandhi," Borah told the media.

He said that nobody can wipe away Rajjv Gandhi's contribution towards women's empowerment at the grassroots level through 33 per cent reservation in panchayats, or his encouragement to the youth to engage in political decision making by reducing the age of voting from 21 to 18 years.

"Can we wipe away the contributions of Rajiv Gandhi towards bringing peace to Assam through the Assam Accord? Can we deny that he made an elected Congress government of late Hiteswar Saikia resign to make way for AGP (Asom Gana Parishad) to contest elections and form the government," the Congress leader asked.

Borah said that Gandhi did this as he respected the regional aspirations of the Assamese people at that time.

"That was Rajiv Gandhi, who believed in listening to the regional aspirations of the Assamese people. But today's BJP would not understand such kind of politics, as it is only busy in changing the names of institutions, rewriting an agenda-based history of India where they made zero contribution, and buying politicians from other parties to form governments," the state Congress chief said.