| Sonia
mum on ‘Cong-ULFA nexus’, talks development instead
Samudra Gupta
Kashyap
 |
| Sonia Gandhi with Assam PCC chief Tarun
Gogoi and other party leaders at an election rally ahead of
the May 10 Assembly elections in the state, in Lower Assam’s
Nalbari town on Monday. Express photo |
Nalbari,
(Lower Assam), May 7:
Two days after Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee alleged that the Congress
was hand-in-glove with the banned ULFA, Congress president Sonia
Gandhi chose to remain silent on the charges, except for claiming
that her party did not believe in violence.
Addressing
a well-attended rally in this AGP bastion in Lower Assam, Sonia
only said that it was her party that had suffered most at the hands
of the militant group. Crimes and harassment of the weaker sections
and women had become the order of the day during the five years
of AGP rule in the state, she charged.
‘‘The
AGP has spread hatred and suspicion among the people, divided them
on caste and religious lines and patronised terrorism. The minorities
have become increasingly insecure while developmental activities
have come to a grinding halt in the state,’’ she alleged.
Instead of
replying to the AGP-BJP combine’s charge that her party had
a nexus with the ULFA, Sonia focussed more on development of the
state, and said that once voted to power, her party’s priority
would be to bring Assam’s economy back on the track.
‘‘The
AGP government has destroyed Assam in every way. The people are
craving for economic development, but the AGP government in the
state and the BJP-led regime at the Centre are least bothered about
the basic issues,’’ Sonia said in her prepared speech
in Hindi.
She claimed
that whatever development Assam has seen was due to the efforts
of the earlier Congress governments, while the AGP lacked foresight,
leading to the destruction of the state’s economy.
The Congress
president highlighted her party’s stand against any move to
scrap the controversial Illegal Migrants (Determination by Tribunals)
Act, and said it would continue to oppose any move by the BJP and
the AGP to repeal it. ‘‘We are for putting a full stop
to illegal infiltration, but at the same time we are also against
harassment of the Indian minorities,’’ she said, indicating
that the Congress was opposed to throwing out Bangladeshi migrants
from the state.
Interestingly,
the Prime Minister too had stated at Silchar in southern Assam yesterday
that he was in favour of issuing work permits to the Bangladeshi
migrants who could not be evicted due to a host of legal and constitutional
problems.
Sonia said
that the AGP and the BJP were alike in principles and policies.
‘‘That is why both have been supporting each other and
have become allies,’’ the Congress president remarked.
‘‘While one party has finished Assam, the other is out
to ruin the whole country. It is an opportunistic alliance. Even
within the NDA, the only binding factor among the constituents is
the hunger for power,’’ she charged, adding that the NDA
constituents could go to any extent to remain in power.
As for the AGP, she said, ‘‘The promises that the AGP
had made during the last election, if implemented, would have converted
Assam into heaven. But it has turned the state into hell.’’
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