Guwahati, Dec 6: Union minister Sarbananda Sonowal on Friday came down heavily on the Congress for its “misgovernance for many decades” and “failure to drive development in the Northeast”.
Addressing mediapersons in New Delhi, Sonowal said the “previous government must apologise to the people of the Northeast”, a region that had remained backward during the decades-long tenure of Congress-led governments at the Centre and in the Northeast.
“Our beautiful region of the Northeast has been blessed by Mother Nature but was ignored for far too long by the successive governments at the Centre, until the NDA came to power (at the Centre in 2014),” he said.
“Former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was an MP from the Northeast, but he never did anything concrete for the betterment of the region. The days of darkness from the insurgency and violence during the previous governments have now become a thing of the past as the current government, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has ensured peace in the region, creating an environment of investment and development,” the Union minister said.
“Today, the athletes of the region can compete at global competitions and win laurels for the country. This has only been possible due to the decade of good governance and development by the Modi government,” he said.
“Under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the region has undergone a major transformation in the past one decade, as compared to decades of inertia by governments stuck in inaction, corruption and ignorance,” the minister added.
“This decade of transformation has sparked new energy in the Northeast. The strategy to rejuvenate the Northeast as the growth engine of India centres around good governance and developmental politics. The twin approach has paid off as people, from the remotest corners of the region, enjoy the delivery of welfare services at their doorstep. This was unthinkable for most people of the Northeast before 2014,” Sonowal said.
