Guwahati, Dec 29 (PTI) Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday exhorted the people of Assam to elect a government in next year’s assembly polls which will work against infiltration and in favour of development of the state.
He accused the Congress of encouraging infiltration for the sake of ‘vote bank’ politics, which led to a threat to the identity of the Assamese people from the illegal migrants.
“It had been like a long bad dream for Assam till 10 years ago. Bandhs, blockades, firings, and bomb blasts were rampant. There were numerous insurgent groups, agitations were happening,” Shah said after inaugurating a 5,000-seat auditorium here, the largest in the North East region.
He claimed that Assam has made progress over the last 10 years of the BJP regime in the state, and 11 years of the Narendra Modi government at the Centre.
“Much progress has been achieved in the last 10 years in Assam under the BJP governments, but we cannot be happy with just that. Bless the BJP with another five years, and every infiltrator will be identified and sent back. This will protect Assam’s identity, language, culture and food,” he asserted.
“In elections in March-April next year, elect a government that doesn’t allow infiltration and works for the progress of Assam,” Shah said to the people of the state.
The BJP leader took a swipe at the Congress, blaming it for the state’s infiltration problem.
“For the sake of vote bank, the Congress encouraged infiltration which has threatened the identity of Assam today,” he alleged.
“Those who talk about Assam’s culture and identity had themselves brought a law in 1983,” Shah said, in an apparent reference to the Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunal) (IMDT) Act.
The Act was repealed by the Supreme Court in 2005 as it held that the law “has created the biggest hurdle and is the main impediment or barrier in the identification and deportation of illegal migrants”.
Shah asserted that the BJP-led government is now working for ‘cultural and economic renaissance’ of the state, and the auditorium, ‘Jyoti-Bishnu Antarjatik Kala Mandir’, inaugurated by him at the event, is a symbol of the state’s growth.
Shah maintained that the programmes attended by him during the day were testimony to the state’s development. He inaugurated the redeveloped Batadrava Than, the birthplace of Vaishnavite saint and Assamese icon Srimanta Sankardeva, and a new police commissionerate office and surveillance system in Guwahati.
“Development, identity, culture, safety — all dimensions of progress have been covered in a single day’s programmes,” he said.
Referring to the Swahid Smarak Kshetra, which he visited earlier in the day, Shah said the memorial for the martyrs of the six-year-long anti-infiltration Assam Movement was a long overdue tribute to their sacrifice. The agitation ended in the signing of the Assam Accord in 1985.
He paid tribute to state’s first chief minister Gopinath Bordoloi, musical maestros Bhupen Hazarika and Zubeen Garg, legendary Ahom general Lachit Borphukan.
Shah also emphaised on the contributions of Jyotiprasad Agarwala and Bishnu Prasad Rava, in whose names the auditorium has been dedicated, to the state, recalling how they instilled the spirit of nationalism in the people during the British rule.
Besides the main auditorium, other facilities in the complex include a convention centre, five VIP suites, multi-level car parking for 450 vehicles, a state-of-the-art audio-visual system and digital infrastructure, they said.
Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had on Sunday said that the auditorium complex would be run on green energy with solar panels installed on top of the auditorium.
One thousand beneficiaries of the Congenital Heart Disease programme were also present at the event.
Appreciating the initiative of the state government to help the children, Shah said, “This is an extremely welcome step taken by Himanta Biswa Sarma. This initiative has ensured that these children will lead a healthy life, become engineers, DMs, IPS officers, and take the state and country forward.” He lauded that monitoring of the treated children was also being done by the government, with over 13,000 children with defects in their hearts at birth benefiting over the last 15 years. PTI SSG BDC SSG NN
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