TURA, Feb 9: BJP candidate from South Tura, Bernard N Marak, who became an embarrassment for his party for his alleged rape of a three-year-old girl at his farmhouse in West Garo Hills district and is set to contest against Chief Minister Conrad Sangma, on Thursday harped on his party’s thrust to bring a ‘double engine’ government in Meghalaya.
Substantiating his point further, Marak said Meghalaya is run by the MDA government with the BJP as a constituent and the state government is enjoying the fruits of central schemes.
“These projects and schemes have been distributed fairly without any bias. Never have beneficiaries been asked about their religion while receiving benefits from schemes,” he added.
The BJP candidate from South Tura also sought to hard sell BJP’s secular credentials claiming the saffron party is not against Christians or any other religion and it is wrong to bring such allegations against the party.
“BJP is not against Christianity or any other religion. It is against corruption like a true Christian should be. The manifesto of the BJP mentions equal opportunities for people from all sections of society as the party does not differentiate based on caste, creed, religion, culture and tribes. Our party is a grassroots-oriented party with a mass base. The schemes of the BJP government in Delhi are designed to cater to all the citizens of the country. In this regard, the BJP government has been able to successfully implement welfare schemes for the poor and the backward communities. There is no scope for any party men to deviate from its goal and objective which has been enlisted in the manifesto,” Marak added.
Bernard cited the example of Nagaland which he said presented good governance under the BJP rule. He said the government ensured social security in the state where there is hardly any animosity among communities.
“It shows that the party does not interfere with the lifestyle, culture and food habits of the people of Nagaland. In fact, the BJP-ruled government has extended lots of projects through the Ministry of Minority Affairs to strengthen the state’s infrastructure in the state,” he added.
Claiming that there was no record to show that people had reservations about the BJP, Marak pointed out that all the candidates are Christians.
