Ministry Expansion: Has Barak shrinked now or was it always narrow

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The photograph that you see above, and many such other photographs where leaders from Barak Valley and Brahmaputra Valley sat shoulder to shoulder, is what brought this weird ray of hope for Barak Valley. The hope of equality or we can rephrase and say hope of less discrimination, and that is why the recent Cabinet Expansion of Sarbanada Sonowal government’s has shocked people of the valley in this manner.

Since the ‘Sarba-Sarkar’ sworn in with absolute majority, it has been very vocal about Barak Valley and its development. The Chief Minister with his oratory skills in occasions like ‘Namami Barak’ or Train inauguration actually left a very positive influence in people’s mind. Not always Bengali speaking people of Barak Valley spoke so highly about an Assamese leader as they all do, (or maybe did) for the chief minister; we all know the history, especially the May 19, 1961 bloodshed.

But if we go beyond speeches what is the ground reality in terms of Barak’s representation in the ministry. There are 15 assembly seats in Barak Valley out of which BJP-MLAs won in eight of them. Six in Cachar and two in Karimganj. Assam has 126 seats in the Assembly and therefore it can have up to 19 ministers. After Tuesday’s expansion the number has reached 18, out of which Barak Valley has one in Parimal Suklabaidya who was a minister in the initial council of ministers too. So behind all the rosy-glory speeches lies a truth which Barak Valley never wanted to accept and that is for Sarba-Sarkar Barak Valley is a priority only in speeches and not in the council of ministers.

Coming back to Parimal Suklabadiya, the senior BJP leader and MLA of Dholai Constituency of Cachar district had sworn in as Minister PWD, Excise and Fishery in 2016. After Tuesday’s ministry expansion PWD has gone from his portfolio and Forest and Environment replaced it. Forest and Environment is globally one of the biggest departments in context to the global warming, abnormal climatic changes and many other issues related to nature. But, in context to Assam state politics, Forest and Environment is certainly not as important as PWD, so if someone says “Parimal Suklabaidya is demoted”, literally, it might be incorrect but practically no one can deny it.

After Parimal Suklabaidya sworn in as PWD Minister, the roads of entire Barak Valley have been like never before. Villages and towns both witnessed a fast and precise workflow and Parimal was very much in the centre of it. Before Namami Barak, common people saw Suklabaidya getting actively involved in betterment of roads, critics said. These are temporary arrangements and in a month it will break apart. The roads are still in a very good condition and that speaks about the quality of the work. Also Suklabaidya was seen inspecting various construction sites in numerous occasions. No one can say this shift is because of poor performance because Suklabadya’s report card carries good marks.

Then what can be the reason? Well the PWD has now gone to Himanta Biswa Sarma, BJP’s Northeast man. Sarma is one of the (if not the) most powerful figure in State politics and if, he had himself asked the Chief Minister for PWD, Sonowal had no other option but to hand it over to him. It is often speculated that Sarma will soon become a Cabinet Minister in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government. There can be another reason too, Suklabaidya showed interest in the Forest and Environment department in recent past. He was vocal about various issues including corruption and had asked former Minister Pramila Rani Brahma to intervene in numerous occasions, he had also asked the minister to take actions against DFO N Anand. Suklabaidya’s involvement helped the government to do away with some corruption in the department and may be his voluntary involvement in Forest and Environment prompted Sonowal to shift Suklabaidya. Whatever might be the reason, this is a huge loss for Barak Valley. What was already miniscule, shrinks further, Barak Valley shrinks in Sarba’s expansion.