GUWAHATL INDIA: A student led political party that trounced Prime Minister Gandhi’s party in Assam state elections took power Tuesday with a mandate to expel an estimated 2 million Moslem immigrants.
India’s youngest-ever state ministry took the oath of office at Guwahati’s mammoth Jawarharlal Nehru Stadium which was packed with about 200000wildly cheering supporters
“Long live mother Assam!” the crowd shouted as the 21member state ministry took the oath of office in their native Assamese language Police used long wooden clubs to hold back the crowd that at one point surged onto the playing field near the rostrum.
The Hindu-dominated party Assam Gana Parishad (AGP) won 64 of the 125 contested state Assembly seats in an election Dec. 16 that was bitterly contested by Gandhi’s ruling Congress (I) Party which won only 25 places.
All the new ministers are between 25 and 35 years old and several including party leader Prafulla Mahanta 32 are still students.
The AGP also won seven out of 14 national parliament seats while Congress won only four and minor parties took the remaining three.
The voting was closely watched by national leaders because the last polls in Assam in February 1983 were accompanied by the worst election violence in Indian history with an estimated 4000 people killed most of them Bengali-speaking mainly Moslem immigrants.
Last week’s election was much more peaceful but analysts worried that voting was divided almost exclusively on racial and language lines.
Article extracted from this publication >> January 4, 1991
