28 August 2025 — Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s visit to Guwahati began on Thursday amid an unexpected situation as a sudden downpour just an hour before his arrival brought the city to a standstill. The downpour, which lasted for less than an hour, brought large parts of Guwahati to a standstill. Vehicle movement on the national highway came to a standstill, and many roads looked like canals.
The timing of the rain proved to be extremely unfavourable. Just a day earlier, a person had died in a similar “artificial flooding” inthe Jorabat area, a term often used by locals to describe the failure of Guwahati’s drainage system that is repeated every year. The sudden heavy rainfall flooded many underpasses and busy stretches of NH-27 with knee-deep water, throwing traffic into disarray.
Social media too became very active during this time, flooded with videos of stranded vehicles, half-submerged scooters and buses moving slowly like ships. GS Road, Beltola and main roads leading to the airport were the worst affected. The situation turned out to be a nightmare for the traffic police and security officials who were preparing for the high-security VIP movement.
Still, the home minister’s plane landed on time at Lokpriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport. He was taken to his two-day events through waterlogged routes. The visit is considered politically significant as it is being understood as part of the BJP’s preparations for the 2026 Assam assembly elections.
Amit Shah’s busy schedule includes many important programs. He will hold a closed-door core committee meeting with senior state leaders to discuss the election strategy. Tomorrow, he will inaugurate the newly built Brahmaputra wing of Raj Bhavan and then address the recently elected NDA panchayat members at the “Panchayat Sanmilan”. Apart from this, he will also inaugurate development works related to the ITBP, SSB, and Assam Rifles.
The irony in the backdrop of this visit is that on the day a Union minister arrived in Guwahati, the city’s age-old and persistently ignored problem of flooding reared its head once again. For local residents, submerged vehicles and distressed commuters may have left a deeper impression than the speeches scheduled for this weekend.
