After the Congress in Assam released a 12-point “charge sheet” against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government, the saffron party responded by calling it a “joke’’, NDTV reported.
Targeting the BJP government before the Assembly election, which will be conducted from 27 March to 6 April in three phases, the Congress also said that BJP has failed to deliver on these 12 key issues in Assam.
The Congress, in a statement, said that before coming to power, the BJP had promised to protect jati-mati-bheti (community, land and base). Instead, the party imposed the Citizenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) on the people of Assam.
“The BJP had promised to finish the work of updating the National Register of Citizens (NRC), started by the Congress, which would help identify foreigners. But the party has stalled the process of NRC for reasons best known to them,” the Congress stated.
Other Issues
The charge sheet also mentioned unemployment, with the Congress saying that the BJP had promised to provide employment to 5 lakh people in the state every year. “Like other promises, the BJP failed to deliver on this too,” the Congress said.
The party further alleged that Assam’s resources – from oil fields to the Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi International Airport – were being sold to corporate houses at throwaway prices. It also claimed that the state is now seeing regular cases of appointment scams.
“Syndicate Raj, abnormal price rise, concerns of tea workers being ignored, backtracking on Scheduled Tribes status, flood and erosion problems and lack of minimum support price for farmers” were some of the other points included in the Congress’s charge sheet.
The BJP responded by calling the Congress’s charge sheet a joke. "The charge sheet of the Congress is a joke. First, their stand is not clear on the CAA. In some pockets, like Barak Valley, even they support the CAA,” Assam BJP spokesperson Pabitra Margherita was quoted as saying by NDTV.
He further said that the Congress should not question them in the matter concerning the tea garden areas. “Rather, they should question themselves on their performance in all these years. We are changing the face of the tea belt,” he added.
(With inputs from NDTV.)
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