Rajya Sabha MP and Trinamool Congress leader Sushmita Dev exclusively talked to GPlus and explained why she feels that Congress’s Silchar candidate is a BJP dummy. She also said that CAA is a joke.
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GPlus: You were in Congress, now you are in TMC, both are INDI Alliance parties now. Which party is better?
SD: It is not a question of which party is better for me, the question is which party is better for Assam to fight the BJP. I think Trinamool Congress is the alternative because nine sitting MLAs of the Congress have already gone to the BJP, 1000s of workers have already gone to the BJP, so I think that the Congress is in shambles and Trinamool Congress is the only alternative and it is going to rise to the occasion even in the future.
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GPlus: You were an MP from Silchar, your father was a popular leader from Silchar, why didn't you contest this time.
SD:There are only two seats in Barak Valley, one is Silchar which is a Scheduled Caste (SC) seat and I can’t contest. In Karimganj, there are almost 2 lakh 30 thousand minority votes as compared to the majority, that seat was reserved for SC for 50 years and now it is a general seat and the minority people are aspirational about that seat because the number of Muslim voters is more, so I didn’t want to go to a minority- dominated seat and contest.
GPlus: Congress has fielded candidate from Silchar despite being an INDI Alliance party. Is the alliance a failure because even in West Bengal TMC did not leave many seats for Congress?
SD: Alliance and seat sharing are two different concepts. Alliance is that whoever wins, If Mamata Didi wins 40 seats, if Tejaswi wins 30 seats, if Stalin wins 35 seats, you have to come together and form the government in alliance. Seat sharing is going to contest. So I believe that Trinamool Congress has put up candidates where Congress is not in a contest.
GPlus: But the votes will be divided?
SD: Not at all, today if you walk on the streets of Silchar, they will tell you that if TMC was not in the field BJP would sweep by five lakh votes. Today, Trinamool is contesting BJP, we are in the contest, we may win, BJP may win. If we were not in Silchar it was a walkover for the BJP.
GPlus: Last time, after Tripura assembly elections, CPM alleged that TMC was a B team of BJP, your comment on it?
SD: I will say one thing, today in Assam, when Ripun Bora Ji’s Rajya Shabha election was there, Congress cross-voted and helped BJP. When president Murmu’s election was there, Congress cross-voted and helped BJP. So who is the B team, you decide.
GPlus: TMC has fielded very few candidates in Assam, when will the party make its full presence in the state?
SD: We are not contesting in Jorhat, we are not contesting in Nagaon, and the entire seat has changed in Barpeta so we are not contesting where Congress has a sitting MP. We are contesting where Congress has put up dummy candidates. Look at the Barpeta candidate, he is the dummy candidate; Silchar Congress candidate is BJP’s dummy candidate. So we are contesting where Congress has surrendered.
GPlus: What is the scenario in Silchar, how confident are you about TMC winning in Silchar?
SD: We are going to win. Let me tell you why, you are a Guwahati channel, the government has consistently lied to the people of Barak Valley. Chief Minister of Assam, who was then the finance minister, came here and said that all the government jobs of Barak Valley will go to the unemployed youth of Barak Valley, but now Barak Valley’s children don't even get a 4th grade government job, they come from outside Barak Valley. I am not against Brahmaputra Valley, but the chief minister had said he would reserve the seats. He lied. Our only industry, the paper mill, has shut down, Maha Sadak is yet not completed and please look at the price rise. On 1st of April prices of medicines went up, so if the BJP government feels by giving 1000 rupees in their account the people
can run a household where an LPG cylinder costs Rs.1100, then they are fools.
GPlus: What is your stand on CAA?
SD: My stand on CAA has never changed. I said in the Assam Accord when people got citizenship, they did not have to show a single paper. Whoever was there before 1971 became a citizen, so I said if you want to give citizenship to Hindus, why are you asking for papers now? I said CAA is unconstitutional because you cannot leave out one community, but it is the BJP which did propaganda and now CAA has become a joke, now they are telling the Hindus that please show your passport of Bangladesh and ration card of Bangladesh, so CAA is a joke for the Hindus of Assam.
GPlus: How many seats will INDI Alliance get in Assam? And what are your calculations about the entire country?
SD: I am not BJP which is saying that I am winning by 3 lakh votes, 4 lakh votes. People will decide, I am fighting this election on issues, issues like unemployment, inflation and corruption, this is the most corrupt government in the history of Assam.
GPlus: What is your future strategy? Where do people of Silchar see Sushmita Dev after 10 years?
SD: I am a people’s leader, I am in the Rajya Sabha for the next six years. I will continue to work for the people of Barak Valley, Assam and North East India. Politics is not my profession, it's my passion. So I like to represent my people.
GPlus: You and Gaurav Gogoi were the most vocal in the Parliament from Assam as young leaders. Do you think he will win in Jorhat ?
SD: I don’t know, I have no idea, I have not gone to Jorhat, I cannot comment on what’s going to happen in Jorhat.
GPlus: Silchar is not yet developed and people are still poor. What is your plan to improve the situation, if your party is voted to power?
SD: It is very simple, communication is the biggest problem, because we are separated from the rest of Assam and we have to go through Meghalaya. The road condition is very bad from Silchar to Shillong. I intend to take that up in Parliament. Next is employment, so we have to bring industry to Barak Valley, without an industry the children are consistently depending on government jobs and government jobs cannot satisfy everybody, job creation, and third, and most important, I want to fight for the dignity of Barak Valley because we are not a colony of Assam, please, entire Assam should understand that we are not a colony of Assam. Today, chief minister says, “ Amar dhutir vote lage na, amar lungir vote lage na”; dhuti is what a Bengali Hindu wears, they say Bangalis are chanachur wala, what kind of insult is this, I will stand, see our slogans, our slogan this election is ‘Amader Adhikar Amader Swabhiman, 26 Aprile Amra Korboi Proman’.
