From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Assam chief minister Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday criticised veteran BJP leader L K Advani for ‘playing communal and divisive politics’ out of the recent violence in Bodoland Territorial Council (BTC) and adjoining areas in assam.
Talking to media here, Gogoi dismissed veteran BJP leader LK Advani’s allegation that illegal Bangladeshi migrants were behind the recent violence in western Assam.
He also allayed apprehension aired by Advani that indigenous population of Assam would be forced to leave their state like Kashmiri Pandits.
Gogoi said, ‘Assam is not Kashmir’ and criticized the BJP leader for ‘playing communal and divisive politics’ when a part of the state reeling under such violence.
Advani, who had visited Kokrajhar on July 30 last, had accused the government of delay in controlling the riots and claimed that Bangladeshi infiltrators were behind the violence.
He had also expressed apprehension that under the pressure of infiltration from Bangladesh , indigenous people of Assam may have to face the fate Kashmiri Pandits who have become homeless in their own land.
Dismissing Advani’s charges, the CM said there was no delay in controlling the situation on part of the government.
“My government controlled the situation in five days and at the loss of 56 lives. But in Gujarat, the riots in 2002 continued from February to June and thousand lost their lives. Advani was the Union Home minister and deputy prime minister then and BJP’s Narendra Modi was the chief minister in Gujarat,” Gogoi said.
Gogoi also raised question about what Advani and his government did to stop infiltration when they were in power.
While admitting that infiltration still continued from Bangladesh, the chief minister refuted the charge that the illegal Bangladeshi migrants were behind the riots.
“The violence incidents were not the handiwork of illegal migrants as Advani has claimed. The victims as well as the culprits were all Indian citizens,” he said.