Assam: Congress slams CM Himanta Biswa Sarma for arrest of party spokesperson
Guwahati: The Congress party on Saturday slammed Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma over the arrest of a State Congress spokesperson Reetam Singh for a social media post.
Congress Communication Chief Jairam Ramesh, in a post on social media platform X, termed the arrest of Singh as “worse than atrocious”.
The Congress party stated that Singh’s post, for which he was arrested, was “perfectly reasonable”.
“The arrest of my young colleague Reetam Singh for a perfectly reasonable social media post is worse than atrocious, Mr. Chief Minister,” Ramesh said.
Congress general secretary in charge of communications, Jairam Ramesh said on X and tagged Assam Chief Minister Sarma.
Singh was arrested on Saturday for a social media post enquiring about the status of cases registered against three senior BJP leaders, including a former State chief and two serving MLAs.
He was arrested from his home in Guwahati by a team of Lakhimpur district police with assistance from the Guwahati Police.
Senior Congress leader and MP Gaurav Gogoi strongly condemned the arrest, characterizing it as a manifestation of the BJP government’s authoritarian rule and suppression of dissenting voices.
Gogoi, who is the Deputy Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, targeted Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, alleging the police were being used as a political instrument.
Gogoi also voiced deep concerns about the declining integrity of the Assam police, attributing it to CM Himanta Biswa Sarma’s pressure on law enforcement to carry out politically motivated arrests.