SHILLONG: Barely days ahead of the Assembly polls, the Congress has once again come down heavily on the NPP and BJP with the party daring NPP national president Conrad Sangma to keep his hand on the Holy Cross and assure the people of Meghalaya that the NPP is not in an alliance with the saffron party.
Addressing a press conference on Thursday, AICC communications-in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala dared Conrad to confess whether the NPP is not funded by BJP and RSS and whether the party is not a part of NEDA.
“Will he not form the government with the BJP after the election if the numbers are in his favour and can he dare refuse the prime minister’s diktat of not observing December 25 as Christmas instead observing the day as Good Governance Day,” Surjewala asked.
Terming the NPP as a BJP puppet, he again alleged that Conrad’s party and the BJP are two sides of the same coin and the BJP and RSS are hiding behind the NPP mask before the polls. Post-election, they will unleash their sinister designs and divisive agenda, he claimed.
“A vote for the NPP is a vote for the BJP in reality,” Surjewala told reporters, alleging in the same breath that 11 churches were vandalised in and around Delhi in 2014-15 by Bajrang Dal and Bharat Sena goons even as he lamented that no arrest has been made by Delhi police which is under the direct watch of Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh who had the temerity to lecture the state government on law and order issues.
Stating that Christian schools in Aligarh and other parts of UP were threatened not to observe Christmas, Surjewala added that that for the first time in history Christmas carols were not sung at Rashtrapati Bhawan.
“Every time the BJP comes to power, instead of celebrating development, they celebrate division,” he said.
Seconding party president Rahul Gandhi, who in an election rally in the state on Wednesday had claimed that the BJP was sheltering scamsters, the senior AICC leader maintained the saffron party has become the “benefactor, protector and promoter” of the corrupt and “loot and scoot” has become the norm under Modi’s watch.
Surjewala launched a scathing attack on the PM over the PNB scam saying a whopping Rs 21,306 crore loot of honest taxpayers’ money could only take place during the tenure of a “chowkidar” PM who, incidentally, has maintained a stoic silence on the issue.
“First, Lalit Modi, i.e. ‘chhota Modi No.1’ escaped India and then Vijay Mallya duped a consortium of banks of Rs 9,000 crore and escaped. Bank of Baroda lost Rs 6,400 crore in the Forex scam. Now, Nirav Modi (NiMo), i.e. ‘chhota Modi No. 2’, along with his aide Mehul Choksi also escaped India. No wonder, UDAAN is the buzzword of the Modi government wherein every scamster can fleece and fly unchecked and undetected,” he said sardonically.
Surjewala did not miss the opportunity of slamming the BJP over the Rafale deal inquiring as to why the PM and the defence minister are hiding the purchase price of the aircraft.
“Is it correct that each aircraft, as per negotiations made by the erstwhile UPA government, costs $ 80.95 million (Rs 526.1 crore) as against Modi government’s negotiated price of $ 241.66 million (Rs 1570.8 crore) as per current exchange rates? Who is responsible for the consequent loss to the exchequer,” he asked.