At least six persons, including two children, drowned on Thursday, taking the death toll in two waves of floods in Assam since May to 52. The water levels of the Brahmaputra and other rivers dipped marginally but the flood situation continued to be grim with 21.13 lakh people forced to abandon their homes. Flood is a perennial issue in Assam and whenever there are floods in the state the most active people, who are also portrayed as most concerned citizens, are the politicians – both belonging to ruling party or opposition. Flood politics is a common sight every year and this year too, it is at its peak.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed Assam's flood situation through a phone call with Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma. The chief minister of the state tweeted the information to the public and explained how he informed the Prime Minister about the second wave of floods. Meanwhile, appealing to all party workers to help people suffering due to the devastating flood in Assam, the opposition Congress recently slammed Modi for not paying any visit to the state during the ongoing crisis. The Congress criticised the BJP-led government in the state for "failing" to fulfil its promises regarding controlling the annual scourge. The Congress claimed that during the tenure of its government, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came and visited the flood-affected areas and extended all possible help from the central government. The party alleged that unfortunately, no central leader of the NDA government has come to visit Assam as yet. This was politics done over the PM's visit and calls made. Raijor Dal has demanded a special package of ₹50000 crore from the Union government for a permanent solution to the flood and erosion problem. The party also demanded that the state government publish data on the amount of funds that Assam has received so far under the ₹2350 crore package which was announced by the prime minister during his visit in 2017 to take stock of the flood situation. This was another political stunt over floods.
Underdevelopment is glaring in many sectors of Assam, such as education, health, general infrastructure, and the economy, even after many decades of independence. Flood and the extensive damages caused by it testifies to the significant failure of the state and the Centre to control them. Flood management in the state started systemically in 1954. Much water has flown down the Brahmaputra, but neither has the flood come under control, nor the damages caused sufficiently mitigated. The only constant, come the floods every year, is the politics over it to earn a few brownie points.
A huge political debate over embankments along the rivers in Assam has erupted this year. The Congress alleged that for the last 10 years, it is observed that the Jal Shakti Department of the BJP government awards embankment projects to contractors who do shoddy work, but are persisted with year after year. The Congress has also alleged that a state minister of the NDA alliance was chased away by the local residents of Kaliabor while he went for a flood review visit as allegedly the embankment which was breached was constructed by the same minister’s brother. The BJP reacted saying all the broken embankments were constructed during the regime of the Congress government and none of the embankments constructed by BJP or NDA have broken. So, that the politicians keep doing politics over floods is a known fact, it is only to be hoped that it too doesn’t cross the danger mark.