GUWAHATI, March 25: Chhattisgarh chief minister and Congress leader Bhupesh Baghel has accused the BJP of being completely “disoriented” on the real issues of Assam, particularly in regard to its stance on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).
Addressing reporters at the Congress headquarters here on Thursday, Baghel said, “while the BJP has been vocal on CAA before, the silence of the party leaders in Assam now proves that they are completely disoriented. The dual nature of the BJP has been completely exposed on the issue of CAA.”
“In West Bengal, Union home minister Amit Shah claimed that if BJP government is formed, then CAA will be passed in the first Cabinet and it will be implemented immediately. In Tamil Nadu, they are saying that CAA will not be enforced under any circumstances while in Assam, the BJP leaders have gone completely silent on the issue of CAA in Assam,” he said.
“In Assam, BJP is completely on the back foot. Whether it is the Prime Minister or home minister, no one is prepared to face and answer the real questions of the people of Assam. The biggest issues in Assam are unemployment, inflation, floods, livelihoods of tea plantation workers and syndicates. The BJP has no answers to these issues,” the Congress leader said, after a long poll campaign in Upper Assam.
He said that the Congress, on the contrary, has only one stand against CAA.
“Our leader Rahul Gandhi has time and again announced that we will not allow the CAA law to be implemented in Assam, under any circumstances. Among the “5 Guarantees of Congress”, we have promised that rigorous attempts will be made to repeal this law that threatens to divide people.”
In a statement issued later, the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC) also slammed the BJP leaders for asking the people of Assam five more years to seal the Bangladesh border.
“To give them five more years would mean handing over the government and administration of Assam to smugglers. The people of Assam understand that to give the BJP five more years would mean to completely destroy the culture and identity of Assam,” it said.
APCC also condemned the statement of home minister Amit Shah that there were no protests in Assam in the last five years. “He wants to simply obliterate the anti-CAA uprising that happened in Assam. He wants to deny the existence of the young boys who lost their lives in police firing,” it said.