One may raise the question whether it is possible to restore the 29 year old party to its past glory when it was known to be the darling of the masses in the initial years of its inception after the historic Assam Accord signed between the then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi and the leaders of the AASU and the Asom Gana Sangram Parishad (AGSP), later named the AGP, led by Prafulla Kumar Mahanta way back on the night of August 14-15, 1985, as a cohesive, well-knit political party. Or one may question whether the AGP can be revived against the backdrop of the changed national politics or the Congress misrule in Assam.

Frankly speaking, the status of the AGP in the state politics is just like any other insignificant political party such as the Congress of West Bengal which has many sympathizers but no solid social support-base it had once enjoyed. So to revive the party will need hard labour and well-considered road-map for widening its support-base.

It is, however, good to learn that many intellectuals in the state are toying with the idea of revamping sagging regionalism, possibly because of the failures of the Congress in Assam in spite of it having been in the saddle for three consecutive terms. This has been well reverberated in the recently-concluded 2-day National Political Convention of the AGP at Guwahati, where some speakers even pinpointed the need for its revival. While sharing a similar view noted intellectual D Wiren Gohain was of the opinion that the relevance of “regionalism” has not diminished with the passage of time rather has grown as national parties, notably the Congress and BJP, have failed to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of the masses.

Dwaipayan

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