Assam government minister Ashok Singhal celebrated the victory by posting a photo of cauliflower on social media.
The Bharatiya Janata Party-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has won the elections for Bihar Assembly with an overwhelming majority. However, no single party has achieved a clear majority. After this victory, Ashok Singhal, a minister in the Himanta Biswa Sarma-led government in Assam, celebrated the victory by posting a photo of cauliflower on social media. Controversy has arisen just regarding this cauliflower. This post is being linked to the Bhagalpur cabbage incident and the opposition has attacked it.
Let us know what was the cabbage scandal of Bhagalpur? Assam Health and Family Welfare and Irrigation Minister Ashok Singhal, along with posting the photo of cauliflower, has written that the cultivation of cauliflower has been approved in Bihar. Initially people did not understand this post and it seemed incongruous. Later it was realized that it was related to the riots that took place in Bhagalpur in 1989.
This was in November 1989. A field was excavated in Laugay village located in Bhagalpur district of Bihar, in which cauliflower was growing. However, at that time the field was not dug because of cabbage. During the excavation, many red ribbons which were worn on the heads of children were found in the field and along with them, the dead bodies of the children were also found. Dead bodies were emerging from some other places also. Altogether 110 bodies were found from different places. Of these, 52 were only small children. This excavation revealed that a total of 25 families lived in Laugaan and four thousand rioters had killed almost everyone.
After killing so many people, the bodies were first thrown into a pond but within a few days a strong smell started emanating from them. On this, all the dead bodies were taken out and buried at different places. Some of these dead bodies were buried in a field and cabbage seeds were sprinkled on top. When excavation was done during investigation, dead bodies were recovered. Same was the condition of many surrounding areas except Laugaan. There too, dead bodies were found at various places. This incident is known as the Gobi incident.
Bihar approves Gobi farming ✅ pic.twitter.com/SubrTQ0Mu5
— Ashok Singhal (@TheAshokSinghal) November 14, 2025
In fact, in the year 1989, there was a terrible riot in Bhagalpur, which continued for two months. During this period, more people were murdered in villages than in cities. If government figures are to be believed, more than a thousand people were murdered in this riot. The root of its beginning was the Ram Mandir movement of Ayodhya. At that time, a campaign was going on to collect bricks for the construction of Ram temple. In August of the same year, a riot was almost averted when a traditional procession of Lokdevi Vishdhari Mai took place in Bhagalpur.
After this, when the Ramshila procession took place in October, the administration and the police were alert and could narrowly avoid a riot two months ago. A heavy police force was accompanying the Ramshila procession. When this procession, which took place on 24 October 1989, reached the Muslim-dominated Tatarpur area of Bhagalpur, people allegedly raised inflammatory slogans. In response to this, bricks and stones started being thrown at the procession. A small bomb was thrown. There was no casualty in this but the rumor spread like wildfire and riots started in entire Bhagalpur.
After the incident of stone throwing at the procession, by evening a rumor spread throughout Bhagalpur that a large number of Hindus had been killed. Someone spread a rumor that dead bodies cut into pieces were found in the well. Just what then. The whole of Bhagalpur started burning due to the spark of rumour. Violence continued at various places in the entire district for two months. Thousands of people were killed. It is said that this violence had affected about 250 villages. More than 50 thousand people were rendered homeless. Even BSF and Army had to be called to deal with this violence.
The failure of the police was considered to be the reason behind such huge violence. There were many investigations into this riot. The report came. In these reports it was said that Bihar Police completely failed to stop the riots. In the same report it was also said that there were many occasions when the police helped the rioters. At many places, when people complained about riots to the police, they remained sitting with their eyes closed. There were many such occasions, when the Army and BSF arrived, the police themselves misled them. Kept moving it here and there deliberately.
The use of gobi farming imagery by a sitting Cabinet Minister of Assam in the wake of the Bihar election results marks a shocking new low in political discourse. It is both vulgar and shameful.
The image is widely associated with the Logain massacre of 1989, where 116 Muslims
— Gaurav Gogoi (@GauravGogoiAsm) November 15, 2025
Now Assam Minister Singhal is accused of celebrating NDA's victory in Bihar by citing these riots. On this, Deputy Leader of Congress in Lok Sabha Gaurav Gogoi has said that this post is obscene and shameful. He said that the post on cabbage cultivation by a sitting cabinet has been used after the Bihar election results, which is both obscene and shameful. He has said that this photo is related to the Laugay massacre of 1989, where during the Bhagalpur violence, 116 Muslims were murdered and their bodies were hidden under cauliflower. Other opposition leaders have also targeted the Assam minister.
