GUWAHATI, April 3 � Senior leaders of the national political parties made a beeline for Assam to woo the voters but the common perception is that they frequent the state only during the time of the elections and not when the people of Assam face problems like floods.
A number of senior leaders of both Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) extensively toured Assam in the run-up to the first phase of the polls and they are likely to come again to campaign for the second phase. For the Congress, the party president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and others visited the state to address election rallies. Not to be outdone, the heavyweights of the BJP including the party president Nitin Gadkari, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and others addressed election rallies. But the question is whether these leaders of the political parties will visit Assam when lakhs of people suffer during the floods?
When confronted with this question, the state unit leaders of the Congress and the BJP tried to defend their leaders claiming that their leaders were with the people of Assam through thick and thin and blamed the other party.
The chairman of the media cell of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), Pankaj Bora said that the leaders of the Congress have been visiting the state at the time of need right from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, who visited the state during devastating floods in Dhemaji and Lakhimpur. He said that when the state witnessed unprecedented floods in 1988, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi along with his wife Sonia Gandhi extensively toured Assam.
When pointed out that the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha, failed to visit Assam frequently, Bora said that it is not possible for a Prime Minister to frequently visit any part of the country even if he wishes to do so. �What we want from the Prime Minister is not his visits to the state but schemes for the overall development of the state. Because of the initiative of the Prime Minister, the Planning Commission grants to the state have been increased substantially, while, the much awaited gas cracker project work has started only because of the personal initiative of Dr Singh. The pace of development of Assam increased as the Prime Minister is personally monitoring the implementation of various projects and that is what we need from him,� he added.
Bora further said that immediately after the serial blasts on October 30, 2008, the Prime Minister rushed to Assam and visited the blast sites. He is with Assam whenever the state needed him, Bora added.
The APCC leader also termed the leaders of the BJP �seasonal flowers� and said that they swamp the state only during the elections to launch misleading campaigns.
On the other hand, the BJP claimed that the allegation against the party leaders was not correct and alleged that the leaders of the Congress visit the state during the elections only.
Sarbananda Sonowal, a national council member of the BJP, said that senior BJP leader Arjun Munda had visited the state during the floods, while, Rajnath Singh took part in the agitation against mega dams in Gerukamukh. The BJP leaders made corruption in Assam a national issue, while, during the tenure of the NDA Government an affidavit supporting the scrapping of the IMDT Act was submitted in the Supreme Court. Sonowal said that the DoNER Ministry was created during the time of the NDA Government and the construction of the Bogibeel bridge started during NDA regime only.
Sonowal alleged that the allegation of leaders coming to Assam only during the election is true for the Congress as very few leaders of the party visit Assam in the time of need. Being a representative from Assam, the Prime Minister should have devoted more time to the state during crisis but he failed to do so, he added.
GUWAHATI, April 3 � Senior leaders of the national political parties made a beeline for Assam to woo the voters but the common perception is that they frequent the state only during the time of the elections and not when the people of Assam face problems like floods.
A number of senior leaders of both Congress and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) extensively toured Assam in the run-up to the first phase of the polls and they are likely to come again to campaign for the second phase. For the Congress, the party president Sonia Gandhi, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee and others visited the state to address election rallies. Not to be outdone, the heavyweights of the BJP including the party president Nitin Gadkari, former Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley and others addressed election rallies. But the question is whether these leaders of the political parties will visit Assam when lakhs of people suffer during the floods?
When confronted with this question, the state unit leaders of the Congress and the BJP tried to defend their leaders claiming that their leaders were with the people of Assam through thick and thin and blamed the other party.
The chairman of the media cell of the Assam Pradesh Congress Committee (APCC), Pankaj Bora said that the leaders of the Congress have been visiting the state at the time of need right from the days of Jawaharlal Nehru, who visited the state during devastating floods in Dhemaji and Lakhimpur. He said that when the state witnessed unprecedented floods in 1988, the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi along with his wife Sonia Gandhi extensively toured Assam.
When pointed out that the Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh, who represents Assam in the Rajya Sabha, failed to visit Assam frequently, Bora said that it is not possible for a Prime Minister to frequently visit any part of the country even if he wishes to do so. �What we want from the Prime Minister is not his visits to the state but schemes for the overall development of the state. Because of the initiative of the Prime Minister, the Planning Commission grants to the state have been increased substantially, while, the much awaited gas cracker project work has started only because of the personal initiative of Dr Singh. The pace of development of Assam increased as the Prime Minister is personally monitoring the implementation of various projects and that is what we need from him,� he added.
Bora further said that immediately after the serial blasts on October 30, 2008, the Prime Minister rushed to Assam and visited the blast sites. He is with Assam whenever the state needed him, Bora added.
The APCC leader also termed the leaders of the BJP �seasonal flowers� and said that they swamp the state only during the elections to launch misleading campaigns.
On the other hand, the BJP claimed that the allegation against the party leaders was not correct and alleged that the leaders of the Congress visit the state during the elections only.
Sarbananda Sonowal, a national council member of the BJP, said that senior BJP leader Arjun Munda had visited the state during the floods, while, Rajnath Singh took part in the agitation against mega dams in Gerukamukh. The BJP leaders made corruption in Assam a national issue, while, during the tenure of the NDA Government an affidavit supporting the scrapping of the IMDT Act was submitted in the Supreme Court. Sonowal said that the DoNER Ministry was created during the time of the NDA Government and the construction of the Bogibeel bridge started during NDA regime only.
Sonowal alleged that the allegation of leaders coming to Assam only during the election is true for the Congress as very few leaders of the party visit Assam in the time of need. Being a representative from Assam, the Prime Minister should have devoted more time to the state during crisis but he failed to do so, he added.
