GUWAHATI, Dec 26 - Opposition Congress party has accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of failing to fulfil the promises they had made to the people of Assam as well as of trying to falsify history to take credit for the projects carried out by the previous Congress regimes.
Addressing a press conference here today, Leader of Opposition in the Assam Legislative Assembly Debabrata Saikia said the BJP is getting apprehensive after it suffered defeats in elections to three state assemblies.
�The Prime Minister came to Assam to inaugurate the Bogibeel Bridge yesterday. But he failed to show even the basic decency. The government failed to show even the basic decency and did not invite former Prime Ministers HD Deve Gowda and Dr Manmohan Singh, former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi and also leaders and MLAs of our party to the inaugural ceremony of the bridge,� said Saikia, who is also Leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP).
He accused Modi of violating democratic norms and traditions. �This has once again proved Modi�s real character. BJP lost Assembly polls recently in three states and so the party has become apprehensive. So, just for the sake of mileage, yesterday�s public event was turned into a political event of the BJP,� said Saikia.
The senior Congress leader added, �Modi has been guilty of many broken promises and even anti-Assam steps since he became Prime Minister. Now, he has resorted to outright misinformation to deny due credit to the Congress for good work done in the past.�
Saikia said that Modi had promised to implement the Assam Accord and immediately deport all illegal migrants from the State if the BJP formed the government at Dispur in 2016.
�But now he is playing the politics of illegal Hindu migrants versus illegal Muslim migrants and creating polarisation in Assam by tabling and backing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2016,� said Saikia.
He said the BJP has broken one promise after another given to the electorate of Assam. �Modi publicly promised to revive the Nagaon and Cachar paper mills both before the 2014 General Elections as well as the 2016 Assam Assembly elections, but a Rs 1,990-crore revival package has been put in cold storage in the Prime Minister�s Office (PMO) for almost two years. Before the 2014 General Elections and 2016 Assembly Elections in Assam, Modi and the BJP had assured of granting Schedule Tribe (ST) status to six communities of Assam. But now that promise has become a joke. The Modi government is privatising around 24 oilfields of Assam by depriving ONGC and OIL, but Sarbananda Sonowal and his fellow protectors of �jati, mati and bheti� are keeping mum. Even in case of the last bout of floods in Assam, the Modi government provided only around Rs 250 crore even though the State government had asked for Rs 3,000 crore as financial assistance for relief work and an additional Rs 1,300 crore for rebuilding embankments,� said Saikia.
He said that the NDA regime at the Centre is trying to restart the stalled Lower Subansiri Hydel project by enacting a law to classify it as a �National Project�. �This is an attempt to bypass environmental concerns as well as the threat to downstream riverside dwellers based in Assam,� said the senior Congress leader.
The senior Congress leader said that most of the work on both the bridges inaugurated by Prime Minister Modi in Assam in the recent past � the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge and the Bogibeel Bridge � was completed by the previous UPA government.
�It was Dr Manmohan Singh who had given the Bogibeel Bridge �National Project� status. Dr Singh virtually doubled the initial outlay of Rs 1,767 crore to Rs 3,230.02 crore for the Bogibeel project. Construction of the Dhola-Sadiya Bridge also started during the tenure of Dr Singh in 2011,� the Leader of Opposition added.
