Dismiss my government, Gogoi dares Centre

Shelter to illegal migrants

BY Our Staff Reporter

Guwahati, April 6: With the BJP leadership accusing him of sheltering illegal migrants, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi today said the Centre should dismiss his government if he was doing so.

“If I am sheltering Bangladeshis, there is a breakdown in the system. Then why haven’t they dismissed my government? Why don’t they impose President’s Rule?” Gogoi asked at a press conference here.

Gogoi said that if the BJP can identify one Bangladeshi being sheltered by him, he will quit public life.

“If they can’t show one, they should quit…I don’t need Bangladeshi votes,” he said.

Gogoi said the BJP rakes up the illegal migrants issue only during elections. “It becomes their main issue... The BJP government, after coming to power, never discussed the problem with me,” he said.

Gogoi also wondered why the BJP was not critical of Himanta Biswa Sarma who was a minister for Implementation of Assam Accord.

He said the BJP has adopted an election tactic by harping on the slogan for change, but “it won’t work”.

Accusing the BJP of volte–face on a number of issues which it had raised in the last Lok Sabha election, Gogoi said the saffron party is out to fool the people again.

“From the issue of illegal migrants, to big dams to the land swap deal with Bangladesh… they had promised a lot during the Lok Sabha election campaign. But after coming to power, they did the opposite,” Gogoi said, claiming that the BJP was taking undue credit of the Indo–Bangladesh fencing and floodlighting work which was “actually initiated by the UPA government.”

Gogoi said he was happy at the huge turn–out of voters in the first phase of elections, but dismissed the notion that it translated into an anti–establishment wave.

“Even in Bihar the turn–out was huge. But the people voted for the government,” Gogoi said, claiming that the Congress will form the next government on its own.