GUWAHATI: Tarun Gogoi, a three-time former chief minister of Assam and the face of Congress in the state for decades, died at 5.34 p.m. Monday after three weeks of battling post-Covid complications. He was 86 years old and active in politics until he tested positive for the virus on August 25, days after presiding over the latest in a series of meetings with potential non-BJP allies for next year’s assembly elections.
Gogoi, who had spent the past 20 days in the ICU at Guwahati Hospital and Medical College, succumbed to multi-organ dysfunction caused by a number of comorbidities, his doctors said. Health and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who used to be Gogoi’s blue-eyed boy until he resigned from Congress to join the BJP, had announced in the afternoon that the oldest CM in the state was fading.
As hopes for a recovery were dashed, the son of former CM and Lok Sabha MP, Gaurav Gogoi, had put an earphone into his unconscious father’s ears and played songs by Bhupen Hazarika. “The singer Zubeen Garg had visited my father and suggested that music therapy would give him peace of mind. I also played for him the speeches of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, the two people who influenced him the most ”, he said.
Among the last Congressional satraps in the northeast, Gogoi had led Congress to his third consecutive term in the state in 2011, just five months after recovering from triple heart surgery in Mumbai. In his first term in 2001, he had anchored Assam’s financial recovery, in addition to setting the roadmap for peace talks with militant groups and the first Bodo agreement.
The highlight of Gogoi’s third term as CM was launching the process of solving the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh. The National Citizen Registry (NRC), which has since become an electoral weapon in the BJP’s arsenal, was Gogoi’s “baby”, as he would proudly remind everyone.
Until he was hospitalized for treatment for Covid-19 on August 26, the former CM had been busy trying to forge alliances with several non-BJP parties, including MP Badruddin Ajmal’s AlUDF.
CM Sarbananda Sonowal announced a three-day state duel, during which Gogoi’s body will be kept in Guwahati’s Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra for the public to pay their last respects for two days starting Tuesday. He is likely to be cremated with full state honors on Thursday.
Condoning Gogoi’s death, President Ram Nath Kovind said: “It is very sad to hear of the passing of Shri Tarun Gogoi, former Chief Minister of Assam. The country has lost a veteran leader with rich political and administrative experience. His long term in office was a period of epochal change in Assam. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted:” Shri Tarun Gogoi Ji was a popular leader and a veteran administrator, having years of political experience in Assam and the Center. . Anguished by his passing. ”
Such was Gogoi’s appeal across the political spectrum that CM Sonowal had visited his predecessor’s residence to seek his blessings before going to the swearing-in ceremony. “His untimely disappearance has been a severe blow to the people of Assam. It is the end of an era in Assam’s public life. Personally, I feel like I’ve lost a parent, ”Sonowal said.
His former protégé Sarma recounted Gogoi’s contribution to lifting Assam from the quagmire of bankruptcy after the term of the old AGP government ended. “I was lucky to have worked with him. He rescued Assam from a period of darkness and directed it for 15 years, ensuring a new phase of development, ”he tweeted.
In addition to his son Gaurav and daughter Chandrima, Gogoi is survived by his wife Dolly.
Gogoi, who had spent the past 20 days in the ICU at Guwahati Hospital and Medical College, succumbed to multi-organ dysfunction caused by a number of comorbidities, his doctors said. Health and Finance Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who used to be Gogoi’s blue-eyed boy until he resigned from Congress to join the BJP, had announced in the afternoon that the oldest CM in the state was fading.
As hopes for a recovery were dashed, the son of former CM and Lok Sabha MP, Gaurav Gogoi, had put an earphone into his unconscious father’s ears and played songs by Bhupen Hazarika. “The singer Zubeen Garg had visited my father and suggested that music therapy would give him peace of mind. I also played for him the speeches of Indira Gandhi and Rajiv Gandhi, the two people who influenced him the most ”, he said.
Among the last Congressional satraps in the northeast, Gogoi had led Congress to his third consecutive term in the state in 2011, just five months after recovering from triple heart surgery in Mumbai. In his first term in 2001, he had anchored Assam’s financial recovery, in addition to setting the roadmap for peace talks with militant groups and the first Bodo agreement.
The highlight of Gogoi’s third term as CM was launching the process of solving the problem of illegal migration from Bangladesh. The National Citizen Registry (NRC), which has since become an electoral weapon in the BJP’s arsenal, was Gogoi’s “baby”, as he would proudly remind everyone.
Until he was hospitalized for treatment for Covid-19 on August 26, the former CM had been busy trying to forge alliances with several non-BJP parties, including MP Badruddin Ajmal’s AlUDF.
CM Sarbananda Sonowal announced a three-day state duel, during which Gogoi’s body will be kept in Guwahati’s Srimanta Sankardeva Kalakshetra for the public to pay their last respects for two days starting Tuesday. He is likely to be cremated with full state honors on Thursday.
Condoning Gogoi’s death, President Ram Nath Kovind said: “It is very sad to hear of the passing of Shri Tarun Gogoi, former Chief Minister of Assam. The country has lost a veteran leader with rich political and administrative experience. His long term in office was a period of epochal change in Assam. “Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted:” Shri Tarun Gogoi Ji was a popular leader and a veteran administrator, having years of political experience in Assam and the Center. . Anguished by his passing. ”
Such was Gogoi’s appeal across the political spectrum that CM Sonowal had visited his predecessor’s residence to seek his blessings before going to the swearing-in ceremony. “His untimely disappearance has been a severe blow to the people of Assam. It is the end of an era in Assam’s public life. Personally, I feel like I’ve lost a parent, ”Sonowal said.
His former protégé Sarma recounted Gogoi’s contribution to lifting Assam from the quagmire of bankruptcy after the term of the old AGP government ended. “I was lucky to have worked with him. He rescued Assam from a period of darkness and directed it for 15 years, ensuring a new phase of development, ”he tweeted.
In addition to his son Gaurav and daughter Chandrima, Gogoi is survived by his wife Dolly.
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