GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Sarbananda Sonowal is all praise for Major Leetul Gogoi for his daring act while a section of social media users in the State has started equating him with 17th century Ahom general Lachit Borphukan.
“We are proud of Major Leetul Gogoi’s efforts,” Sonowal told the media in Guwahati on Wednesday when his reaction was sought about the young Army officer. Recently, Gogoi was awarded the Chief of Army Staff commendation card but it triggered an outrage in Kashmir.
He is in the eye of the storm for trussing up a civilian on a jeep’s bonnet as a “human shield” to rescue over a dozen election and security personnel from a stone-pelting mob in April. Back home in Assam, he has won many hearts, though, for his “daring” act. Social media users in Gogoi’s hometown Namrup are planning to invite and honour him for the act that has made the Assamese proud. BJP’s Dibrugarh MP, Rameswar Teli, paid a visit to Gogoi’s house in Namrup on Tuesday to felicitate his parents. Abhijit Baruah, a Facebook user, wrote: “Asom gourab Major Leetul Gogoi Zindabad (long live Major Leetul Gogoi, the pride of Assam)”. “He should be invited to Assam and felicitated,” Prabhat Pathak, another Facebook user, wrote. Shyam Kanu Mahanta, an entrepreneur, wrote: “Such daredevilry can be only expected from the descendants of Bir Lachit Borphukan. Proud of you Major Leetul Gogoi! Keep the flag flying high.” Major Gogoi is an Ahom, a community that ruled Assam for 600 years. Borphukan, who was also an Ahom and the general of the Ahom army, had inflicted the worst defeat on the Mughals in the Battle of Saraighat near Guwahati in 1671. Major Gogoi, who graduated from the Dehradun-based Army Cadet College, was commissioned as a lieutenant in 2008.