Tarun Gogoi always prioritized the education of minority girls, says AIUDF supremo Badruddin Ajmal

GUWAHATI: During a 25-year-old association, All India United Democratic Alliance (AIUDF) Chief Badruddin Ajmal always maintained a familial bonding with 3-time former Chief Minister of Assam Tarun Gogoi who passed away yesterday at the Gauhati Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Gogoi, Ajmal informed during an interaction with INSIDE NORTHEAST, had always sought to empower minority women. "He had asked me to empower Muslim women and give them the boon of education. He stressed that they should be doctors, engineers. Now, more than 80 students from the Ajmal Foundation have gotten admissions in medical institutions all over India," Ajmal said.

"Even though we traded political barbs, we never let that come in the way of our familial relation. Twice he visited me in my home in Hojai and also in my home in Mumbai," Ajmal told Inside Northeast.

Ajmal says that Gogoi always maintained cordial relations with him in spite of everything. "Whenever we ran into each other , he would often hold my hand and for 10-15 minutes would enquire about my family, my business, and everything else," Ajmal said.

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Speaking on their political rivaly, Ajmal says it is "natural" that Gogoi should have treated him as a rival. "His ideology was different and our's was a new party and we had gone up against the Congress. Therefore, our political rivalry was justified."

The AIUDF Chief also said that his Ajmal Foundation will also publish books about Tarun Gogoi and within 1-2 days, a hunt will begin to seek out eligible writers who can put the memories down into words in a befitting manner. "We will look at the bio-data of the writers and screen them and the memory of Tarun Gogoi will be kept alive through that book," Ajmal said.

Interestingly, it was Gogoi himself who snubbed Ajmal in the run-up to the 2006 assembly elections with his famous one-liner, “Who is Badruddin Ajmal?” Since then, the two leaders have come close -- with the duo walking hand-in-hand while nominating joint candidate Ajit Kumar Bhuyan to the Rajya Sabha.

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