SHILLONG: Former Union minister Shashi Tharoor on Friday took Chief Minister Mukul Sangma’s ‘Team-B’ remark to another level by comparing the National People’s Party (NPP) with the wagging tail of a dog, the BJP.
Drawing the blunt analogy, Tharoor, who is known for his eloquence, said though NPP was trying to pose as an independent entity in Meghalaya, it was attached to the BJP as a tail “that wags whenever the dog barks”.
“I am not sure whether people in Meghalaya will be happy with a masked party that pretends to speak for local interest here and outside attaches itself with a party that has betrayed the values of the country,” the Lok Sabha MP told reporters here on Friday.
He accused the BJP government of using its majority to promote “narrow-minded ideas based on Hindutva” but talking about being kind to Christians in other states. “Horrendous incidents involving Christians have taken place,” he said during an election rally in the city.
“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 added as the crowd cheered.
Laudable performance
Hailing the work of the Congress-led government in Meghalaya, Tharoor told media persons in the city that as the election was nearing, it was time for the people of Meghalaya to validate the excellent performance of the Congress.
Stating that he believes in politics of performance, Tharoor said Meghalaya saw astonishing improvement in education, especially women literacy. He also lauded the state government’s health insurance scheme, Integrated Basin Livelihood programme and the Social Audit Act.
“Meghalaya is second to none in the country not only in literacy but also the way it overcame the age-old discrimination and inequalities where women have been empowered by the process of education,” he said and added that the state has beat Kerala as far as female literacy rate was concerned.
On health sector, the senior Congress leader from Kerala said the BJP government in Delhi has borrowed a leaf out of Meghalaya’s book by announcing a nationwide health insurance scheme and unlike the northeastern state, they have no realistic number as well as no indication of the budget on how to finance it.
Tharoor appreciated the Meghalaya Integrated Basin Livelihood programme saying that the government at the Centre was unable to provide livelihood whereas dramatic progress was made in Meghalaya.
On the newly formulated State Social Audit Act, Tharoor observed that nowhere in the country, the public was given the right to audit beneficiaries of development.
“These four are the examples of the best in the country,” he said.
Tharoor pointed out that the BJP government failed spectacularly in the three and a half years achieving nothing and now it was claiming of achieving many things in Meghalaya. “They have become a name changing and not a game changing government… Negative reasons are summed up in three letters – BJP,” he taunted.
