'Comrade' 'Lal Salam' greet Asssm CM Sonowal on Facebook

    Guwahati, Jun 8 (PTI) Assam's BJP Chief Minister
Sarbananda Sonowal is being defiantly addressed as 'comrade'
and greeted with 'lal salam' on Facebook by netizens outraged
by the charge-sheeting of peasant leader and activist Akhil
Gogoi over alleged sedition and terrorist activities.
    Days after Gogoi and three of his associates were
charged by the NIA, which cited the two expressions linked to
Communists, anathema to the Hindu far right, to claim their
involvement in seditious and terrorist activities, Sonowal's
posts on the social media website are drawing a barrage of
Left terminology.
    Indignant criticism that began trickling in from June
4 has turned into a virtual avalanche in the last 2-3 days.
    The posts on his official Facebook page are being
greeted with expressions like 'comrade', 'lal salam',
'inquilab zindabad' and references of communist ideologues
like Vladimir Lenin.
    On May 29, the National Investigation Agency (NIA) had
filed the charge-sheet against Gogoi and his three associates
for alleged sedition and terror activities for their role in
violent protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act that
rocked Assam in December last year.
    Reading the Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx, Friedrich
Engels and Lenin's works, Mao Zedong's life, and calling
friends comrade and greeting them with Lal Salam are some
of the grounds that the NIA has cited to link them to the
banned CPI(Maoist) and charge them under the stringent anti-
terror law.
    If convicted, they face the prospect of spending the
rest of their lives behind bars.
    After the contents of the charge-sheet became public,
the outrage spilled over to the Facebook page of Sonowal, who
also holds the Home portfolio.
    While most comments are limited to "comrade, lal
salam", many have strongly criticised the action.
    "Red Salute Red Salute. If Red salute is a crime you
go and arrest Patriot Bhagathsing first then come back if you
are still remains.....!!!," one user said.
    "Lalsalam. Dear comrede. Long live lenin. Welcome
nia," wrote another.
    Many posted memes and videos of Lenin delivering a
speech after the October Revolution in Russia.
    "Lalsalam comrades... When I give food to the poor,
they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food,
they call me a communist," a netizen wrote, referring to the
famous quote by Brazilian Catholic Archbishop Dom Helder
Pessoa Camara.
    "Lal Salam comrades. We shall overcome these black
days," another commented on Sonowal's page.
    Their posts also carried graphics of red flags and the
communist symbol of hammer and sickle.
    "Russian Revolution is great. Lenin is a great
comrade; Lal salam; Big Red salute," another user said.
    While people from across the country have posted their
comments, a sizeable section is from the Left-ruled Kerala.
    "We are communist party of india marxist. Do you know
sir indian history freedom fight we are support indian
fighters but RSS BJP supported british and shoes licked of
british so do not fight against communist we will destroy
RSS," a Facebook user from the southern state wrote. PTI TR SK
SK SK

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)