Hindu migrants to be protected, entire tion to share burden: Shah

Special correspondent

Silchar, March 31: BJP tiol president Amit Shah, during his daylong campaign in Barak Valley, addressed as many as four election rallies at Ratabari, Katigorah, Borkhola and Dholai today.

Addressing a huge gathering at Haticherra under Borkhola constituency in the tea belt of Cachar, he pointed to the plight of tea workers and asked what the Congress government has been doing to improve their living conditions.

 Shah assured that if the BJP comes to power at Dispur, the bonus of tea workers will be enhanced significantly and schemes taken up for creating job opportunities for their dependents.

"The only thing the Congress did during its 15 year rule is allowing Bangladeshis to infiltrate into Assam so that it can increase its vote bank. These Bangladeshis have in turn taken away jobs of sons of the soil," Shah said.

 The BJP president fired salvos at Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi for demanding accounts of the performance of Modi government, dubbing it a 'diversiory tactic' to absolve themselves of any accountability for the non-performance of Congress governments both at the Centre and the State.

"Former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh was elected an MP from this State and he led a government for 10 years at the Centre. What did he do for Assam?" Shah wondered.

 "This is assembly election, not parliamentary election. When election to Lok Sabha comes in 2019, we will give every account of the performance of the Modi government. It is a travesty that the dystic rule of one family has done nothing to reduce or remove poverty. The poor have become poorer. Electricity has not reached every village, so is the case with drinking water. Youths have no jobs. The Congress government has been ridden with corruption and scams. People are now demanding answers from Tarun Gogoi who has been ruling the State for three terms," he said.

 Shah said whereas the Congress does not know the difference between an infiltrator and a refugee, the BJP government will not only stop infiltration from Bangladesh, but will also give citizenship to those who had fled religious persecution in that country.

"We have been opposing infiltration from Bangladesh since the days of Assam movement... We are going to make such arrangements that not even a bird can enter the country, forget about infiltrators," he said.

It is the BJP government at the Centre that has issued a notification recently, which envisages giving citizenship to Hindu migrants and refugees who fled to India due to religious persecution and atrocities, said Shah.

Assam would not be alone in shouldering responsibility of Hindu refugees, the entire country would chip in, said the BJP president.

In a retort to Rahul Gandhi, Shah said when Congress-led UPA government was in power, India was being run from Italy.

"Rahulji came here and said Assam will be governed from gpur if BJP comes to power. I want to tell him that their government for 10 years was run from Italy when they were in power," said Shah.