Sangh leader Krishna Gopal raises the issue of changing demographic pattern in Assam, says exponential growth of Muslim population since Independence.
New Delhi: Senior RSS leader Krishna Gopal Friday slammed the Congress party, saying it had always neglected the Northeast because of which there is little awareness about the history of the region elsewhere in the country.
Talking about the changing demographic pattern in states such as Assam, he said at the time of Independence, there were no Muslim majority districts in Assam. “Today there are nine,” the Sangh leader said at the release of the book, ‘The Last Battle of Saraighat’.
Written by Rajat Sethi and Shubhrastha, the book chronicles the BJP’s rise in the Northeast.
Taking part in a panel discussion moderated by the ThePrint Editor-in-Chief Shekhar Gupta, Gopal said, “where did all the Muslims come and who is responsible for that?”, without naming Bangladesh, seen as the source of Assam’s illegal Muslim immigrants.
Tracing Assam’s history, he said people of this state had stopped the mighty Mughals from entering the Northeast.
“It is because of the people of Assam that countries such as Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam and parts of China were saved from Mughal occupation. Otherwise, the geography of these places could have been completely different,” he added.
Talking about the RSS’ work in the state, Gopal said that the Sangh had been working very hard to infuse nationalistic sentiments among the people of the region.
“Many of our RSS workers were killed but we kept on working as we believe in the idea of India from Kamrup to Kutch,” he said.
The RSS runs 600 schools in Assam and is currently carrying out 16,000 projects by its workers, he said.
Responding to a question raised by Gupta as to whether the work done by the RSS had helped the BJP win so convincingly in the Northeast, he said, “It is for the BJP to answer. The RSS is not a political organisation and we work with an objective of one nation.”
The event was attended by BJP general secretary and in-charge of Northeast, Ram Madhav, Manipur chief minister N. Biren Singh and Assam health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.