Lies must stop: Congress after PM Modi's big Assam handover to Pak charge

Congress on Sunday hit back after Prime Minister Narendra Modi accused the party of conspiring before Independence to hand over Assam to Pakistan.

At a rally in Guwahati on Saturday, PM Modi lambasted Congress, alleging it had “committed a sin” by preparing to join hands with the Muslim League and the British to make Assam part of erstwhile East Pakistan.

“When the Muslim League and the British were together preparing the ground for Partition, a plan was made to make Assam a part of undivided Bengal or East Pakistan. Congress was going to become part of the conspiracy,” he said.

Senior Congress leader and Lok Sabha MP Manickam Tagore countered the charge in a post on X, calling it historically false and politically motivated.

“There was NO proposal to hand over Assam to Pakistan,” Tagore wrote. “Assam was a Hindu-majority province and was never designated for Pakistan under the Partition plan. The only area in question was Sylhet district of Assam — a Muslim-majority region.”

PM Modi made the remarks after inaugurating India’s first nature-themed airport in Guwahati, named after Gopinath Bordoloi, Assam’s first post-Independence chief minister and a Congress leader, and unveiling an 80-foot statue of the statesman.

The Prime Minister said Bordoloi had defied Congress to protect Assam. “Bordoloi stood up against his own party. He opposed this conspiracy to destroy Assam’s identity and saved Assam from being separated from the country,” he said.

Tagore disputed that account, saying history told a different story. He noted that in July 1947, under British authority, a referendum was held in Sylhet, which then voted to join East Bengal, later East Pakistan.

“This was not a Congress decision,” Tagore said. “Because of the efforts of Gopinath Bordoloi, the Karimganj subdivision was retained in India.”

“This is recorded history,” he asserted. “There is no historical evidence that Congress as a party conspired to give Assam to Pakistan.”

The Congress leader said Partition occurred due to “British haste” and the Muslim League’s demand, and accused PM Modi of turning “a complex, tragic history into a campaign slogan”.

Taking a swipe at the Prime Minister, Tagore called him a “trained RSS man” who “lives by spreading lies.”

PM Modi’s comments came against the backdrop of unrest in neighbouring Bangladesh, which has seen violent protests following the killing of youth leader Sharif Osman Hadi, fuelling fears of fresh migration ahead of elections due next year. By invoking East Pakistan, PM Modi linked historical memory to present-day anxieties over infiltration and demographic change.

The Prime Minister also attacked Congress for opposing the special intensive revision of voter rolls, accusing it of shielding infiltrators for electoral gain.

“To increase its vote bank, Congress gave free rein to infiltrators,” he claimed. “The demography here has changed. These infiltrators have encroached upon our forests and our land. The security and identity of entire Assam has been put at stake.”

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