Every day, a battle: How Akhil Gogoi won without holding a single rally

On May 2, 2021, peasant leader and RTI activist Akhil Gogoi created history by being the first person from Assam to win an assembly election while being imprisoned. He took his oath as a Member of the Legislative Assembly from the constituency of Sivasagar on May 21 under special arrangements. He was taken to the Assembly House in a police vehicle under the strict scrutiny of the National Investigative Agency (NIA) from the Guwahati Medical College Hospital (GMCH), where Gogoi has been under treatment for a few months now.

Gogoi has been incarcerated since December 12, 2019, on accounts of accusations including charges of sedition, terrorism and violence under the Unlawful Activities Prevention Act (UAPA) which, as believed by many, was a response from the BJP-led government against the mass protest led by Gogoi against the controversial Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in Assam.

The CAA was approved by the Parliament on December 11, 2019. It grants citizenship to the people of Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan that belong to six minority religious communities and entered India by 2014. Many opposed the controversial amendment due to its exclusion of the Muslims, but in Assam, it took a different turn due to the fear of ‘outsiders’ swamping the indigenous communities. Two days after the CAA was approved, Gogoi was arrested by the Assam Police for allegedly leading and encouraging a violent mass protest.