‘Confer Bharat Ratna on Zubeen Garg’: Gaurav Gogoi urges Centre in Lok Sabha
State Congress chief brought up the matter during Zero Hour, calling Garg ‘one of the greatest sons of Assam’
Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, raising demand for justice to Assam's late cultural icon, Zubeen Garg (Photo: Sansad TV/Youtube)
New Delhi, Dec 3: Congress deputy leader in the Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi, on Wednesday, raised the demand for justice into the death of Assam’s cultural icon Zubeen Garg, urging the Centre to confer the highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, on the late artiste.
“We request the Government of India to give the highest civilian honour — the Bharat Ratna — to late Zubeen Garg,” Gogoi told the Lower House.
He brought up the matter during Zero Hour, calling Garg “one of the greatest sons of Assam” and questioning the circumstances surrounding his mysterious death in Singapore.
Gogoi said Garg died on September 19, on the eve of a performance scheduled at an event organised by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Indian High Commission in Singapore.
“If the Assam government is calling it murder, then we want to know how, during a programme organised by the Government of India, a murder was committed on foreign soil,” he told the House.
Expressing grief on behalf of the people of Assam, Gogoi said, “Zubeen will always be our Kanchenjunga. Today, the people of Assam miss him terribly. We want justice for him.”
The intervention came a day after the Congress High Command in New Delhi reviewed the party’s strategy for the 2026 Assam Assembly elections, during which senior leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, were briefed on the progress of the probe into Garg’s death.
“It is heartening to see Rahul Gandhi asking about how much progress has been made and whether the people of Assam have been apprised of the findings,” Gogoi had noted, after the meeting.
Earlier in the day, the Lok Sabha conducted Question Hour without disruptions for the first time in the Winter Session. At the start of proceedings, members paid tributes to former MPs who had recently passed away.
The House then moved into Question Hour, marking a break from the disruptions since Monday, when opposition parties demanded an immediate debate on the Special Intensive Revision (SIR) exercise underway in nine states and three Union Territories.
PTI