GUWAHATI: Congress cannot provide security to Assam after joining hands with Badruddin Ajmal in its “lust for power”, Union home minister Amit Shah said at an election rally at Batadrava, the birthplace of Vaishnavite saint Srimanta Sankardeva, in Assam’s Nagoan district on Thursday.
Shah avoided the subject of Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) again like he did during his last visit to the state in January. However, referring to new political parties formed out of the anti-CAA movement, he said these were “helping Congress, which used bullets to suppress the Assam agitation against foreigners”.
Shah declared that BJP and its ally AGP, whom he described as the symbol of Assam’s identity, will retain power with more than two-thirds of the 126 assembly seats. Congress and Ajmal’s AIUDF have stitched together their first collaboration since the birth of the perfume baron’s party in 2005.
In his second rally in neighbouring Karbi Anglong district — which Shah was visiting for the first time — the Union minister welcomed over 1,000 cadres of five militant outfits, who laid down arms two days back, and assured them that the promises made to rehabilitate them will be fulfilled within a year of BJP returning to power in the coming polls.
On the peace agreements signed in Assam and the rest of the northeast, Shah said Karbi Anglong was a disturbed area during Congress rule for decades and there was bloodshed everywhere. “Development can happen only when there is peace. Assam is on the path of development,” he said.
Shah slammed Congress governments in the past and accused it of doing nothing to make the state free from violence and infiltration. “Congress talks about providing security at a time when it has joined hands with Ajmal. It is only because of lust for power that it has joined hands with Ajmal. The party did nothing to free Assam from violence and infiltration despite having a PM who was elected from the state and now how can they protect Assam and stop infiltration when they are sitting with Ajmal,” Shah asked.
Shah said PM Narendra Modi will go to any extent to make the region a growth engine of the country and more than anything else, he wants to free the state from the annual devastating floods, which cause largescale disruption and displacement every year.
Meanwhile, Assam Congress chief Ripun Bora on Thursday slammed Amit Shah over his claim that the BJP has brought an end to years of conflict and violence in the state. “It was the Congress that brought peace to Assam. Amit Shah’s anti-indigenous CAA pushed the state back into conflict, curfew and violence. Without peace, there can be no progress,” he said.