‘Drop hatred, join hands for Viksit Bharat’: Sonowal tells Congress in LS

New Delhi, Feb 2: Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal, on Monday, asked the Congress to join hands with the ruling alliance to work towards making India a developed country by 2047.

Initiating the motion in the Lok Sabha to thank President Droupadi Murmu for her address to the joint sitting of Parliament, Sonowal asked the Opposition party to shun its "hatred" towards the government and join the Prime Minister's initiative to make a self reliant “Viksit Bharat” by 2047.

Sonowal alleged that the Congress never gave the Northeastern region its due during its long rule.

"The people of the Northeast have never got anything without coming to the street, without launching any agitation. For every development project in the Northeast we had to resort to agitation and protests," he said.

The MP from Dibrugarh also claimed that the Congress has been rejected by the people of the Northeast for its alleged neglect to the region and has no hopes of winning any election in the future.

"The people of the Northeast don't consider you as our own. You have looted the Northeast, you have deprived people from their legitimate demands. You will be rejected in every elections in the northeast. There is no point for you of trying," Sonowal said.

Sonowal also brought up first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and said, he said goodbye to the Northeast in 1962 during the Chinese aggression.

Describing the president's address as "remarkable", Sonowal said she is the first head of state from the Adivasi community, the second woman and the youngest to occupy the highest position of the country.

He said the president's address has given a broad framework of the Modi government's various welfare schemes which are inclusive, provide social justice and bring equal growth to the people.

"It was not just simple address to the nation but a powerful message of a resurgent India," he said.

PTI