Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday came down heavily on the Bharatiya Janata Party and its ideological mentor Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh for “subverting cultures, languages and lifestyles” of the people of the Northeast.
Launching his party’s Lok Sabha poll campaign at a rally in Guwahati, Mr. Gandhi also urged the people of Assam “not to forget the Congress” for stopping the BJP from pushing the “anti-Northeast” Citizenship (Amendment) Bill through in the Rajya Sabha.
The Congress president began by lauding the Indian Air Force for bombing a Jaish-e-Mohammed camp across the Line of Control, paying homage to the CRPF men killed by a suicide bomber in Pulwama on February 14 and remembering the tea estate workers who died in eastern Assam after consuming spurious liquor.
‘Ideology of hate’
“On the one hand you have the ideology of hatred and violence espoused by BJP-RSS and (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi and on the other you have the Congress ideology of love and brotherhood in the country. Arunachal Pradesh burnt because of the ideology of hate,” he said.
“The BJP and the RSS have not spared a single State from its agenda of ending India’s diversity. They are assaulting the history, languages and cultures of the Northeast for imposing the ones they believe in,” Mr. Gandhi said, adding the politics of hate was pitting people of one kind against another across the country.
The Congress president said his party would protect “your language and cultures” and promised the people to return whatever the “Modi government has snatched from you” – from the special status of Assam and North East Industrial Policy to jobs and self-respect. He also said Assam would be made the hub of technical education if the Congress is voted back to power.
“We will ensure the Northeast is not ruled from Nagpur [RSS headquarters], Mohan Bhagwat and the chowkidaar, who cannot waive the small loans of students and farmers but has no qualms about writing off ₹3.5 lakh crore that 15-20 industrialists owe the country,” he said.
Mr. Gandhi further said his party would ensure that no genuine Indian citizens are left out of the National Register of Citizens being updated in Assam.