SHILLONG: With the Congress-led MUA-II blamed for the coal ban imposed by the National Green Tribunal, the party is apparently adopting a strategy to allay people’s apprehensions on the matter in the run-up to the Assembly elections.
AICC general secretary in-charge, Meghalaya CP Joshi on Wednesday told reporters that the party functionaries would inform people on the various steps taken by the state government to address the ban on coal mining.
Asserting that a lot of rumours have been spread blaming the Congress-led government for the NGT ban, the senior Congress leader said vested interests were taking advantage because many people were not literate on the constitutional position of NGT.
Earlier, BJP had claimed that it would resolve the coal mining ban within six to eight months if it was voted to power in the state.
Terming the statement of BJP a ploy to woo voters, Joshi said, “Let Prime Minister Narendra Modi be in Meghalaya and announce this as he did for demonetisation. If they (BJP) are so confident, they should announce it before the election. Who is stopping them when they are already three years in power at the Centre?”
Stating that the BJP cannot just influence the voters because the Prime Minister’s false promises have been exposed in the entire country, Joshi said there was nothing in new in BJP’s Mission 40 (no. of seats) as the saffron party has in the past many years launched a number of missions in every election.
“They (BJP) can have wonderful imagination…who can stop them from imagining. For the past many years they are coming with these kinds of missions but what is the performance on the ground…you see the history and let me know,” he said.
On the saffron party’s frequent meetings with religious leaders ahead of the election, Joshi, while reminding that democracy always work on ideology and commitment said, “It only reflects their position. In order to woo votes they can go to any extent.”
“They said in 2014 that they would deposit Rs15 lakh in every account, but have they deposited. They said they will provide 2 crore jobs, but have they given…parties who don’t believe in parliamentary democracy can say such things,” he said, adding that in parliamentary democracy the party’s policies are important.
Meanwhile, Joshi said the AICC was taking inputs from party functionaries that would be used for framing manifesto and information as part of the party’s strategy.
The party’s election manifesto will be released after getting feedback from both state government and party workers and once the election is declared in the state.
During his visit to the state, Joshi held separate meetings with cabinet ministers, sitting legislators, MDCs from KHADC, JHADC and GHADC besides party functionaries.
