Unlike Cong, we’ve brought growth to NE, says BJP chief
Earlier northeast was lampooned for being corrupt. Congress governments were neck deep in graft. Since the BJP came to power in northeast, from briefcase politics, it is now marching ahead on development... AMIT SHAH, BJP president
GUWAHATI: A day after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost out to the Congress-led alliance in Karnataka, party president Amit Shah slammed the grand old party’s “briefcase” politics and claimed his party had brought development to the north-east.
“Earlier north-east was lampooned for being corrupt. Congress governments were neck deep in graft. Since BJP government came to power in northeast states, from briefcase politics, it is now marching ahead on development politics,” he said.
Shah listed how the Narendra Modi government at the Centre has worked for the Northeast. “Modi’s mantra of sabka saath sabka vikas has ensured that Northeast has no place for secessionist powers,” he said.
Shah also spoke about how Mizoram will be Congress-mukt soon and how the Congress leaders have amassed huge properties. His comments came at the conclave of the BJP-led NorthEast Democratic Alliance (NEDA) in Guwahati . The umbrella alliance aims to win 21 out of 25 seats in the next Lok Sabha polls.
However, the NEDA has been affected by the strained relationships between BJP and the Naga People’s Front (NPF) in Nagalanad and the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) in Assam.
While the former has distanced itself from the alliance after BJP formed the government with its new ally, the National Democratic Progressive Party led by Neiphiu Rio, the AGP has threatened to withdraw support in Assam if the Centre continues to push the Citizenship (Amendment) bill.
However, during his address, Shah steered clear of these points of disagreement. “We have marched ahead even from the objective we set when we formed NEDA in 2016,” he said.
Launching an attack on the Congress, he said: “Congress always saw the north-east merely as a resource to cobble up a majority. But BJP, whether it was Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s government or Narendra Modi’s government, they have acknowledged north-east’s right.”
During the conclave, AGP chief Atul Bora was quick to draw Shah’s attention to the situation in Assam after protests over the Citizenship (Amendment) bill. “It is a danger to the identity of the local people. It will change the demography of Assam. And there cannot be any division on the basis of religion,” Bora said in his address against the Bill which seeks to grant citizenship to persecuted minorities from Bangladesh, Afghanistan and Pakistan.
(With input from agencies)