JOIN USCongress-AIUDF will open all gates to welcome infiltrators: Amit Shah
Playing identity politics ahead of Assembly elections, Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Sunday said Congress and Badruddin Ajmal-led AIUDF, which forged an alliance recently would open the doors of Assam to welcome the foreigners and only BJP can protect Assam from "infiltrators."
"Congress charges BJP of being communal. They have joined hands with Muslim League in Kerala and Badruddin Ajmal in Assam. What kind of secularism is this? Can Assam remain protected in the hands of Ajmal? If Assam needs to be protected from the foreigners, only BJP government is required both at the Centre and in Assam," Shah said while addressing a massive rally in Nalbari, about 80-km west of Guwahati.
BJP in Assam has stepped up attack on Congress-AIUDF alliance saying that it was aimed at protecting the "foreigners," who posed a threat to identity of the indigenous Assamese people. Congress, on the other hand, said BJP brought the "biggest threat" to the Assamese people in the form of Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Shah, however, did not say anything about the CAA.
Alleging that Congress practised the divide and rule policy of the British, Shah said Congress government in the state created division between tribals and non-tribals, Bodos and non-Bodos and kept Assam troubled for decades. "It is the BJP government which solved the Bodoland conflict by signing the new Bodoland Accord in January last year and solved the Bru refugee problems in Tripura. More than 800 militants laid down their weapons and came back to the mainstream. Now Assam is on the path of peace and development. BJP government freed the encroachment by foreigners from Kaziranga National Park and secured the one-horned rhinos. Give BJP another five years, we will make Assam bullet free, agitation free and solve the flood problem too," Shah said.
Addressing the rally before Shah, Assam minister and BJP's strategist in the Northeast, Himanta Biswa Sarma said Congress and AIUDF were trying to establish the "rule of Babar" in Assam. "But as long as the Hanumans of BJP are around, they can not establish Babar's rule. Only the principles of Sanakrdeb and Madhabdeb will prevail in Assam. We will not allow Congress and AIUDF to enter within a 100-metre radius of the secretariat," Sarma said.
BJP and its regional allies, Asom Gana Parishad and United People's Party Liberal-led by Pramod Boro have set a target to clinch more than 100 seats in the Assembly elections slated to take place in April.
Bodoland promise
Addressing a function to mark one year of the new Bodoland Accord in Kokrajhar, hours before the rally in Nalbari, Home Minister Amit Shah assured that the BJP-led government would make Bodoland area as the most peaceful and developed region in the state. Shah promised that all the promises made in the new Bodoland Accord would be implemented. The accord signed in January last year resulted in the surrender of more than 1600 cadres of all four factions of NDFB, a militant group, which kept the Bodoland region troubled for decades.
Chief executive member of Bodoland Territorial Council, Pramod Boro urged Shah to ensure that all illegal weapons are seized in order to ensure that people could move freely without any fear and worry. "The accord has brought an end to the long conflict but illegal weapons are still there. All such weapons must be seized to make the region terror-free," Boro said.