GUWAHATI, Feb 4 � Facing the wrath of the people for terming people from the North East as �immigrants� in the BJP�s Vision Document for the Delhi Assembly polls, Union Minister Sarbananda Sonowal today tendered unconditional apology for the �mistake� and asserted that the Central Government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was committed to the all-round development of the region.
Sonowal told The Assam Tribune that the BJP had already admitted the �mistake� and the correction had been made. He said that an �unintentional mistake� was made in the Vision Document for the polls prepared by the Delhi unit of the BJP. He said as soon as the incident came to light, the central leaders tendered apology for it.
Sonowal asserted that the BJP was committed to the development of the North East and for the first time, any political party spoke about protection of the students of the region studying in Delhi. If the BJP is voted to power, the students of the region would never feel insecure in Delhi and even local people of Delhi would act as local guardians of the students of this part of the country, he said.
The Union Minister said that Modi is the first Prime Minister of the country to give a formal directive to all the Ministers to visit the North East regularly. All the Ministries have been directed to chalk out special schemes for the development of all the states of the region and such a step was never taken since Independence, said Sonowal.
Sonowal claimed that the BJP is the only party which can deal with the problem of infiltration of foreigners to Assam, while immediately after coming to power, the BJP-led Government released adequate funds for updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC) and for setting up additional foreigners tribunals.
