Assam's Silent Power Circuit: When Subsidies Turn into Silk and Ostentation

A new power point is lighting up Assam's political map—and it is not coming from party offices or manifestos. It is emerging from boutiques with no customers, bungalows lined with imported marble, and lingerie drawers that cost more than livelihoods.

The wives of many senior ministers in Assam are now under the glare of the public eye, not for any formal public office they hold, but for the lavishness they command, allegedly funded through subsidized schemes meant for the marginalized.

Recently, names surfaced—not in mainstream media headlines, but in whispers, group chats, and strategic leaks—triggering tremors in the corridors of power in Dispur. Though the Chief Minister, in his characteristic style, brushes it aside with humour, the unease is visible. The whisper that may soon become a roar by election time.

These funds were meant for cooperative societies, social upliftment, entrepreneurial incentives... But what did they fund instead? The elite ones. This is not an isolated case; it is a pattern. A soft laundering system. An institutionalized misuse of public wealth under the polished balms of empowerment.

As the election is around the corner, the opposition will not miss the optics of subsidized money when common people are getting a meager amount of Rs. 1,259 per month. Because public money—no matter how quietly diverted—leaves a trace.