Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday, May 26, named India's longest bridge which he inaugurated over the Lohit River in Assam after late maestro Bhupen Hazarika, a personality who Assam and other people of the northeast hold close to their heart for his unifying role in the times of crisis.
The move is bound to give Modi's party a traction for Hazarika is too big a cultural icon from the northeast. But what is significant is that the BJP is set to reap the benefit of immortalising Hazarika only after his death and not when he was alive and joined the party.
Bhupen Hazarika's joining the BJP in 2014 was not well received by many
In 2004, Hazarika had joined the BJP saying he was impressed with the stability it had given to India (the third Vajpayee government completed its full tenure that year) and preferred it over the Congress. The Dada Saheb Phalke award-winner had also said that his dream was to improve the conditions in the North-east and be a good son of the soil.
Hazarika contested the Lok Sabha election that year from Gauhati but lost to his Congress opponent by over 61,000 votes. Hazarika was earlier elected as an Independent member of the Assam legislative assembly in 1967 but he never made it to the national politics.
However, it is not that Hazarika's relation with the BJP had impressed all. Before his joining the BJP, the saffron party was accused of cancelling his nomination for the Rajya Sabha's membership just prior to the elections.
Assam-based parties like the AASU and AGP had backed him then. Hazarika had said later in an interview that it was "unfortunate" and that he had "shrugged it off with a laugh". But the AASU and AGP were not convinced when the singer joined the same party and the then Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi even termed him as an "opportunist".
Fielding Hazarika in 2004 LS elections did not earn BJP any benefit
Even fielding Hazarika in the place of Bijoya Chakraborty, a former Union minister, in 2004 annoyed several BJP supporters and after the former lost, Chakraborty was given the candidacy back in Gauhati in 2009. She won the seat in 2014 as well. The saffronisation of a "fiery Marxist" as Hazarika described himself as during the same interview was quite a phenomenon in itself in the politics of northeast.
The impulsive personality in Hazarika who had said that his idea of the BJP had changed did not have a successful venture in the BJP nor did the latter under Vajpayee could make much headway in Assam by roping in the cultural icon.
Today, BJP has little problem to rope in Hazarika since he is dead
But today, almost six years since his death, Hazarika has been brought to life again, this time by the NDA's second prime minister -- Modi. It is easier to deal with a dead man and use up his legacy and Modi has done that successfully without having to face criticism of Hazarika's ideological vacillation displayed a decade and a half ago. Whether Hazarika was as good a political leader as a cultural role model holds no significance today. What's important is that Modi has given him the honour and will get all the blessings that he requires to see the BJP spread its wings in the northeast.
