Rahul warns Assam’s culture will be erased if BJP wins

MORAN: Congress vice- president Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday the BJP would replace Assam’s history and culture with the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh’s ideology, if it wins the elections.

“BJP is controlled by RSS, and if they win here, Assam will be controlled from Nagpur ( RSS headquarters ). They will ensure your history, culture, language, everything is erased and replaced by what they believe is Indian culture,” he said. Addressing a rally at Moran in easter n Assam’s Dibrugarh district, Gandhi hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to bring back black money stashed away in foreign lands.

“Instead, he lets major bank defaulters like Vijay Mallya go and enjoy life abroad. There’s also the example of Lalit Modi,” Gandhi said.

The Congress vice-president also came down heavily on finance minister Arun Jaitley. “You must have heard about the fair and lovely scheme he has come out with. This scheme lets any thief, goonda, terrorist, drug dealer, mafia to retain illegally earned money by paying nominal tax,” he said. He also criticised Modi for failing to keep his promises made during the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

“Tell Modi to fulfil his promises first and then come to Assam,” he said, adding that his government has taken away 12 beneficiary schemes for the poor and has withdrawn free ration for tea plantation workers. Moran is a major tea growing centre in eastern Assam, and a majority of the voters are Adivasis – often referred to as “tea tribes”. The state goes to polls in two phases, on April 4 and 11.