SHILLONG: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), whose next target is Congress-ruled Meghalaya, is desperately trying to shed its communal image to expand its voter base in the State.
Every senior and State leader of the party who had addressed the media or the electorate recently had stressed on the saffron brigade’s secular stand and downplayed the nationwide uproar over cow slaughter, closure of abattoirs and lynching of minorities by zealots.
Assam Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, who is also the president of the BJP’s northeastern alliance NEDA, was the latest on the list of BJP senior leaders to harp on the secularism that the party practices.
Sarma, who was in the city on Friday, said the party is not anti-minorities and that it is functioning smoothly in the Christian-dominated northeastern states is a proof of its inclusive policies.
“We are not governed by any other organisation (RSS) and BJP has its own agenda of development for the region,” he told reporters.
When asked about the recent controversies over Good Governance Day on Christmas and Digital India Day on Good Friday, the senior BJP leader said “those were mere coincidences and the party would never hurt the sentiments of people”. Biswa, who was in Shillong to attend the state executive meeting of the party, said Good Governance Day celebration has now been turned into Good Governance Week and different states are celebrating it on different days rather than on December 25.
Among the recent leaders, both central and State, who tried to break the communal façade of the party are J.A Lyngdoh, Shibun Lyngdoh and Nalin Kohli.
On the recent directive of the Centre about making Hindi compulsory in all schools, the senior BJP leader said in Meghalaya, the three local languages of Khasi, Jaintia and Garo should be made compulsory in schools.
