Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma came down heavily on the Congress by stating that the hallmark of the party’s policy in Northeast India was divide and rule.
The Assam Chief Minister addressed a press conference in Guwahati’s Janata Bhawan on Tuesday where he took a jibe on the Congress and their policies. This press conference comes after a no-confidence motion was moved against the Narendra Modi government in the Lok Sabha earlier today.
In the press conference, CM Sarma said, “During Congress’ rule, there was a series of border clashes in the northeastern region. I want to question the Congress that you created the State of Arunachal, Nagaland, Mizoram and Meghalaya. Why didn’t you create a boundary at the time when those states were created? Why did you leave us without demarcating the boundary properly? The entire policy of the Congress was to ensure that the communities and states fight amongst themselves and an intra-religion fight sparks so that they can rule the northeastern region by divide and rule policy. This was the hallmark of Congress' policy in the northeast since 1962.”
“All conflicts between communities of the Northeast have a history. Today, Assam is crying for the Congress’ fault policies of welcoming foreigners and Bangladeshi immigrants to the state. I want to clearly state that because of the wrong policy adopted by the Congress during the formative years, today Northeastern states are not able to resolve various disputes that exist in our region from the time we have attained freedom,” he further said.
The Assam Chief Minister shared the chronology of ethnic violence in Manipur since 1990 and said that no leaders of the Congress ever paid a visit to the state during the riots that took place earlier.
He questioned, “Did Congress leaders ever visit Manipur in 2012 or 2014 when people of the state were being killed? This so-called I.N.D.I.A delegation went to Manipur and became experts on the issue overnight. BJP is bearing the legacy of wrong policies of the Congress.”
Himanta Biswa Sarma also said that the history of Congress is only related with bloodshed.
“As far as Northeast is concerned, the Congress’ hands are full with blood whether it is Nagaland, Mizoram, Assam, Manipur or other parts of the region. History of Congress is only history of bloodshed.”
CM Sarma went down memory lane making references to riots in Assam’s Kokrajhar in the years 2008 and 2012 during the leadership of the then Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh.
Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “There were two incidents in Kokrajhar that dates back to 2008 and 2012. In 2008, a total of 64 people were killed; 3,211 houses burnt; 115 people injured and 11,690 people affected in Darrang and Udalguri districts. There are no records of Dr Manmohan Singh ever visiting Assam during that time. Today in the Parliament, an MP from Assam said that Manmohan Singh had visited Assam during the riots. But this is not true.”
“Dr Manmohan Singh never visited Kokrajhar during the 2008 violence. In 2012, though he visited the riot-hit areas, it was just a one-hour visit. A token visit by a prime minister was not responsible for resolving the conflict as it continued even after his visit,” CM Sarma added.
