SHILLONG: The National People’s Party (NPP) is trying to say they are independent and are contesting election by themselves and everywhere but Meghalaya, they are allied to BJP and attaching itself as a tail that is wagging whenever the dog barks, “Lok Sabha member, Shashi Tharoor said here in Shillong where he is campaigning for the Congress ahead of the Assembly polls
“I am not sure people in Meghalaya will be happy with a mask party which pretends to speak for local interest and here and outside attaches itself with a party which has betrayed the values of the country,” Tharoor told reporters here on Friday.
Tharoor also hailed the work of the Congress-led State Government in Meghalaya for the past eight years.
Addressing a press conference here, Shashi Tharoor said that as elections are just around the corner, it was time for the people of Meghalaya to validate the excellent performance of the Congress government here.
Stating he believes in the politics of performance, Tharoor said Meghalaya saw astonishing improvement in education and Meghalaya was second to none in the country not only on literacy but also the way Meghalaya overcame the age-old discrimination and inequalities where women have been empowered by the process of improvement of education in the state even as he added that Meghalaya has come ahead of Kerala as far as female literacy rate was concerned.
On health sector, he said that the BJP Government in Delhi had just borrowed a leaf out of Meghalaya’s book by announcing a nationwide health insurance schemes and unlike Meghalaya they had no realistic number as well as no indication of the budget on how to finance the scheme .
Tharoor also appreciated Meghalaya Integrated Basin Livelihood programme saying providing livelihood is a big challenge in the country as the Government at the Centre has been unable to provide livelihood whereas dramatic progress has been made in Meghalaya.
According to Tharoor, nowhere in the country, public have been given the right to audit beneficiaries of development but Meghalaya Government has come up with the Social Audit act.
“These four are the example of the best in the country,” he said
Tharoor pointed out that the BJP Government had failed spectacularly in the three and half years achieving nothing and now they were claiming of achieving many things in Meghalaya, adding “ They have become a name changing and not a game changing government”
He said that the BJP Government was using its majority to promote narrow-minded idea based on Hindutva even as he added that BJP here was talking about being kind to Christians but in others states, horrendous incidents involving Christians had taken place
“Here they are opening their arms and in Delhi they are denying visa to a pastor who intended to visit Garo Hills. Here they say you can eat whatever you like and in the rest of the country they assault and even kill people on the suspicion of being a beef eater,” he said.