‘Am brand ambassador of northeastern culture’: Modi at Jhumoir Binandini event

“Both development and the culture of Assam and the rest of northeast were neglected by previous governments. But now Modi himself has become the brand ambassador of the region’s culture,” PM Modi said at a dance event called Jhumoir Binandini, a traditional dance form of the tea-tribe community of Assam.

Over 8,000 dancers and drummers from over 800 tea gardens across Assam participated in the dance event held at Sarusajai Stadium to mark celebrations to commemorate 200 years of Assam’s tea industry.

Assam governor Lakshman Prasad Acharya, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Tripura’s Manik Saha, external affairs minister S Jaishankar, shipping and ports minister Sarbananda Sonowal and heads of missions of 61 countries also witnessed the event.

“Who will better know the smell and colour of tea than a ‘chaiwala’ (tea vendor)? Like you, I also have a special connection to Jhumoir and the tea-tribe community,” PM Modi said to loud cheers from the participants of the event.

He recollected attending the mega Bihu dance performance at the same venue in April 2023 when over 11,000 dancers and drummers had taken part in the traditional dance form and entered the Guinness Book of World Records.

PM Modi also credited efforts by the BJP governments in the state and Centre for the Assamese language getting classical status and the Charaideo Moidams, the burial mounds of Ahom kings of the state, getting classified as a UNESCO World Heritage site.

He also listed the development initiatives over the past few years for the welfare of the tea-tribe community whose ancestors were brought to the state many centuries ago by the British from states such as Chattisgarh, Odisha and Jharkhand.

In his speech, Himanta Biswa Sarma said the event was a tribute to the contribution of the community to the state’s culture, economy and language. He said that the government would soon provide land rights to tea garden workers who have been living in the tea gardens for generations.

PM Modi is on a two-day visit to Guwahati and will inaugurate the Advantage Assam 2.0 infrastructure and investment summit on Tuesday. Industrialists Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani, Anil Agarwal, Sajjan Jindal and N Chandrasekaran (Chairman of Tata Group) among others will be part of the two-day event, the state government said.

Ahead of the summit, the Assam cabinet on Sunday approved memorandums of understanding (MoUs) worth over ₹1.22 lakh crores to be signed during the summit.

Advantage Assam 2.0 will be a sequel to the first such investment summit held in Guwahati in 2018 when Sarbananda Sonowal, who is now a union cabinet minister, was the chief minister of the state. Multiple MoUs to invest in the state valued at over ₹65,000 crores were signed by companies during that summit.