SHILLONG, Feb 20: For once, it was a press conference with a twist. The battleground was Meghalaya elections but the target in front of the Congress was not Meghalaya BJP. It was Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
Launching a frontal attack on the Assam CM who has been extensively campaigning for the BJP in Meghalaya, Congress’s Lok Sabha member Gaurav Gogoi questioned why the former was blaming the NPP and not his own party for the failures of the MDA government.
“Himanta Biswa Sarma admitted that the NPP-led MDA government had failed to deliver and had questioned where the money meant for development had vanished. He also lamented that medical colleges in Shillong and Tura did not see the light of day as promised. He also admitted that the alliance government even failed to host the National Games,” Gogoi said, reminding that BJP was part and parcel of the MDA.
Asking Sarma as to why did not take up these issues as the NEDA convenor before the elections, Gogoi recalled that the BJP had played the broker’s role in the formation of the NPP-led government in 2018.
“He cannot now blame the NPP alone for not fulfilling its promises. He cannot absolve his own party from the corruption carried out by the MDA. Weren’t BJP MLA Sanbor Shullai and before that AL Hek Cabinet ministers in the MDA? The Congress party would like to tell Dr. Sarma to stop all this drama to fool the people of Meghalaya,” he said.
Slamming Sarma on the issues of attacks on Christian in Assam, Gogoi said the Assam CM has claimed that there has not been a single incident in Assam that has affected the religious sentiments of Christians in his state.
“On the contrary, news reports have shown increasing intolerance towards minorities – Muslims and Christians alike. There have been instances of demolition of a church in Chirang in BTAD area along the Assam-Bhutan border by the BJP government. This anti-Christian attitude of the BJP has increased manifold in Assam as in the rest of the country,” Gogoi added.
Referring to Janajati Dharma Sanskriti Suraksha Manch in Assam (an organisation backed by RSS) which demanded stripping Christians in Assam of their ST status, the Congress MP said this was against the spirit of respecting the indigenous ethnic origin of the STs of the Northeast, especially the Christian community in Meghalaya and Nagaland.
“Religious profiling and harassment of the Christian community in Majuli, Assam is further evidence of the mistreatment of the minority communities by the BJP,” he added.
Pala as Congress CM
The senior Congress leader from Assam threw his weight behind MPCC chief Vincent H Pala as the party’s chief ministerial candidate.
Gogoi was quick to add that this was his personal announcement and the party had not decided on the same.
“I have seen Vincent Pala in Parliament and how he defends the interests of Meghalaya and talks about attacks on Christians. He also talks about bringing infrastructure and also cares about his own constituency,” Gogoi recalled.
