Sonowal's Vietnam trip an irresponsible act: Tarun Gogoi

GUWAHATI: Former chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Tuesday criticized his successor Sarbananda Sonowal for travelling to Vietnam when the state was besieged by non-stop protests against the Centre's move to amend the Citizenship Act of 1955 to make Bengali Hindus and others from non-Muslim communities, who have infiltrated the country from Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan due to religious persecution, citizens of India.
Gogoi said, "When the whole state is burning with protests against the Citizenship (amendment) Bill of 2016, he chose to go to Vietnam and that too by a chartered flight to explore the country's agriculture sector. This shows how irresponsible the chief minister of the state is."

Sonowal went on a day-long tour of Vietnam on Monday and met several top leaders of the Vietnamese government and discussed economic and other bilateral issues to boost agriculture, trade and commerce in Assam.

Sonowal returned to the state on Tuesday afternoon only to be confronted by fresh threats by the state government employees that they would quit their jobs if the bill was not scrapped. Protests against the bill erupted when the joint parliamentary committee started the public hearing on the bill here a week ago. The protests have only grown in the last seven days.

"Vietnam imports agricultural technology from India. Sonowal should have taken a trip to Punjab to learn the techniques instead of wasting government fund by travelling to Vietnam along with agriculture minister and several BJP MLAs," Gogoi said.

"This government has sent so many of its ministers to so many foreign countries seeking investments. How much of that has become a reality, no one knows," Gogoi added.

Sonowal held separate discussions with Vietnam deputy minister of agriculture and rural development, chairman of Vietnam's external relations commission Hoang Binh Quan and others.Sonowal also visited Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Science, where the officials made a presentation on Vietnam's agriculture, agricultural extension programme and research being carried out in the field of agriculture.

A state government spokesman said the Hung Yen Provincial Peoples's Committee has expressed willingness to work for development in the state's agricultural sector with appropriate technological support.