Akhil Gogoi is a peasant leader and an RTI activist from Assam. Over the years he has been leading many anti-graft movements in the state. Akhil came to national attention after he was awarded the Shanmugam Manjunath Integrity Award in 2008 for his relentless fight against corruption and attempts to bring transparency in government functionings. In 2010, he was awarded the national Right to Information (RTI) Award by
Public Cause Research Foundation (PCRF) for his for his role in exposing the 1.25 crore scam in Sampoorna Gram Rozgar Yojna (SGRY) and Rs 60 lakh scam in the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY) in Golaghat district of Assam by using the RTI Act. He donated the entire sum of Rs. 2lakhs of the Award to his organisation KMSS.

"Maoist" controversy

In April 2010, a secret report of the Assam government alleged that Akhil Gogoi had close connections with CPI-Maoist. Gogoi challenged the report and dared the Assam government to prove the allegation. Intellectuals across the country including Magsaysay Award Winner Sandeep Pandey

Sandeep Pandey

Sandeep Pandey is an Indian social activist. He co-founded Asha for Education with Dr. Deepak Gupta and V.J.P Srivatsoy while working on his Ph...

 and Medha Patkar

Medha Patkar

Medha Patkar is an Indian social activist. She is known for her role in Narmada Bachao Andolan. She has also filed a public interest petition in the Bombay high court against Lavasa along with other members of National Alliance of People's Movements , including Anna Hazare.-Personal life:Medha...

 condemned the government for trying to implicate the activist. In an interview with NDTV, Akhil Gogoi said, "I am a Marxist and I do believe in social transformation. But I am not a Maoist. They don't believe in mass activities. We at KMSS are trying to organise the masses for revolution. But the attempt of the government to implicate me as a Maoists shows their frustration because they have been unable to contain the growing popularity of KMSS". It created an embarrassment for the Assam government and finally the government had to withdraw the charges.

Early life and other activities

Akhil Gogoi was born on 01-03-1976 in Vill-Lukhurakhon, Selenghat, Dist- Jorhat, Assam. He attended Cotton College, Guwahati

Cotton College, Guwahati

Cotton College is a premier institution for higher education located in the heart of Guwahati, Assam, a northeastern state of India.240px|right|thumb| Cotton College, the premier college of Assam-History:...

 in English literature in 1993-1996. He was the general secretary of the students union United Revolutionary Movement Council of Assam(URMCA), a mass organisation of CPI-ML-PCC

PCC

- Biology and chemistry :* Pyrolytic chromium carbide coating by vacuum deposition* Precipitated calcium carbonate* Propionyl-CoA carboxylase* Pyridinium chlorochromate- Organizations and companies :...

under the leadership of naxalite

Naxalite

The word Naxal, Naxalite or Naksalvadi is a generic term used to refer to various militant Communist groups operating in different parts of India under different organizational envelopes...

 leader Santosh Rana

Santosh Rana

Santosh Rana is an Indian politician. In the 1960s, he was a firebrand figure in the armed struggle of the Naxalites led by Charu Majumdar.-Agrarian revolutionary:...

. However, by the end of 1990s he broke with Rana and devoted himself as an editor of Notun padatik, an independent Marxist journal published in Assamese, along with iren Gogoi lives in Golaghat district of Assam along with his wife.

Further reading

For an academic treatment of some of the movements led by Akhil Gogoi and his KMSS, see "Forest Land and Peasant Struggles in Assam 2002-2007" by Arupjyoti Saikia

Akhil"s Movement in Assam