SHILLONG, Feb 11: The Congress party on Saturday said the ethnic, religious and linguistic identity of Meghalaya is under threat from the BJP, which wants uniformity in everything.
Addressing a press conference here after releasing the party’s manifesto for the Assembly election scheduled on February 27, former Union minister and Congress MP, Jairam Ramesh claimed that Congress for the last 45-50 years has respected the Sixth Schedule knowing the special needs of Meghalaya.
“But today, the ethnic, religious, social and linguistic identity of Meghalaya is under threat because in the name of unity, BJP and its allies propagate uniformity and only Congress believes in unity through diversity,” he said.
Asserting there is a “puppet master” who sits in Delhi and “puppets” in other states, the Congress MP named the National People’s Party, the United Democratic Party and the Trinamool Congress as three such puppets.
“Be under no illusion, these are all part of the BJP’s latest plans. The NPP is ‘A team’ of BJP, UDP is ‘B team’, TMC is ‘C team’ and Meghalaya BJP itself is ‘D team’ of the central party in the state,” he said.
Terming the MDA as an unholy alliance, Ramesh said these parties are claiming to fight the elections independently but would jump into the bed together at the first opportunity.
Meghalaya, Ramesh said, was known as the abode of clouds but these clouds have a different meaning today. “Meghalaya is reeling under the clouds of unemployment, power cuts, damage to the independent identity of people, and political puppetry,” he added. He redefined MDA as ‘Money Development Alliance’ whose alliance partners have taken a temporary divorce because of elections but are part and parcel of the same package.
Stating that it was he who had fathered the National Green Tribunal and had piloted the NGT bill when he was the environment minister, Ramesh lamented that the orders of NGT are being flouted in Meghalaya in pursuit of private gains and even the Covid-19 pandemic has not been spared.
“This is a watershed election for Congress as 47 out of the 60 candidates are below the age of 45 years,” he said, adding Meghalaya should not be ruled from Delhi, Kolkata, or Nagpur but it should be ruled from Meghalaya itself.
He said Congress means business in the state and has always bounced back with the Bharat Jodo Yatra creating a different narrative about the party.
He slammed the BJP for misusing their trishul (trident) comprising the Enforcement Directorate, the Central Bureau of Investigations, and the Income Tax Department to make the parties vulnerable.
Manifesto
Congress has made several commitments in its election manifesto, the primary among them being free healthcare facilities to all citizens under their soon-to-be-unveiled Free Health Care Scheme.
The party also said it is committed to providing free education to every girl child in Meghalaya from kindergarten to XII standard besides ensuring minimum support prices for ginger, turmeric, broomstick, black pepper, and other agricultural produce.
Promising to provide every BPL household with quality roofing materials in a phased manner, the party assured creation of a corpus fund of Rs 500 crore for building infrastructure for religious gatherings.
Congress further committed to establishing a dedicated state university with a special focus on job-oriented and market-ready courses such as Internet of Things, blockchain technology, IT and ITES, besides establishing a special urban police force that will be modern, people-friendly, and equipped to handle city-based crime scenarios using the latest technology and equipment.
The party also promised to provide 200 units of free power to each household below the poverty line, a free LPG cylinder every quarter and the creation of one job for every household in Meghalaya through the promotion of mass entrepreneurship.
In addition, the party promised to restore the dignity of all teachers in the state and release their salaries on time, create an exclusive women’s market in the state where local products would be sold and augment the power supply in the state by an additional 500 MW through the adoption of clean and green technologies.
