SHILLONG, FEB 22: The ruling Congress today dared the National People’s Party (NPP) national president Conrad K Sangma to put his hand on the ‘Holy cross’ and say he will not join the Bharatiya Janata Party after the February 27 Assembly poll in Meghalaya.
“I would like to ask Conrad if he can keep his hand on the holy cross and tell the people four things – he and NPP are not funded by BJP and RSS, is he not part of BJP’s NEDA, will he not join hands with BJP and refuse Modi’s diktat of not observing December 25 as good governance day,” AICC media-incharge Randeep Singh Surjewala told journalists here.
Singh also accused the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) of hiding behind the mask of the NPP.
“The NPP, BJP and the RSS are all two sides of the same coin. The BJP and RSS hide behind the mask of NPP. Before the election they will hide behind the NPP and post election, they will unleash the fury of their sinister designs and divisive agenda,” he said.
Also alleging that a vote for NPP is a vote for BJP in reality, the AICC leader however said that the party is certain that the people of election going states including Meghalaya will foil this sinister and divisive agenda of the BJP, the RSS and their mask of NPP.
He said everybody knows that the BJP has a sinister agenda of demolishing the unique cultural fabric, the distint ethnicity, the special demography and vibrant language, traditions and customs of Meghalaya and also the rest of the North East region.
Asked, he said that the country belongs to 132 crore people but under the prime minister Narendra Modi’s watch there has been a systematic prosecution of Christian minority and brazen attack and vandalising of churches.
In the year 2014-2015 alone, Singh said 11 churches were attacked and vandalized in the national capital of Delhi and around by Bajrang Dal and Dharam Sena, both outfits claiming affiliation to the BJP-RSS.
“There was no action taken and no arrest made and yet the Union home minister Rajnath Singh who comes here and speak about law and order,” he said.
Referring to the tradition followed by all presidents of the country, Singh said that for the first time in India’s history, singing of carols at the Rashtrapati Bhavan was stopped last year despite of the fact that it has nothing to do with religion.
To give an adverse message to Christian minority, he alleged that December 25 has been converted by BJP from being celebrated as Christmas festival to ‘Good Governance Day’.
This was opposed even by BJP’s own alliance partners like the Nagaland People’s Front and People’s Party of Arunachal Pradesh, he said.
He further stated that no one has forgotten the murder by gruesome burning to death of Christian missionary, Graham Staines and his two minor sons by Bajrang Dal activist, Dara Singh and others in 1999 under BJP government.
The Congress leader said that instead of development, division is celebrated and this is the essence of difference between the Congress and the BJP and its allies like the NPP.
“We celebrate development, brotherhood, cohesion, multi ethnicity and diversity of custom, language, food habits, colour of skins that is what is India is about and you cannot convert India into a regimented, facist regime which they are trying to do that is why we raise the issues we raised,” he said.
Reacting to a query, Singh claimed that the works of the Congress government in the state of Meghalaya has been the biggest evidence of the delivery on the ground done despite the sinister campaign launched by the BJP and its puppet party the NPP.
“The truth remains on the ground that the Congress government has unleashed a new agenda of development on the ground in the last five years. The agenda of development is for the people of the state to see and adjudged,” he said.
“The manner and fashion in which infrastructural changes and institutional projects have been brought in for bringing development to the last corner of the state and to the under develop region is a story by itself,” he added.
According to him, when the BJP and NPP are issuing advertisements which are border line offensive to defamatory and tried to only critize and divert the debate from development to division, they are underestimating the inherent wisdom of the people of Meghalaya.
By Our Reporter
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