Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah on Thursday kick-started the Lok Sabha campaign in Assam making strong pitch for safer borders and an end to infiltration.
Addressing a rally at Kaliabar in the Nagaon district, Shah said, "We have stopped infiltration in Assam. Once Prime Minister Narendra Modi is voted back to power, we will identify each and every infiltrator and send them back."
"The Assam Accord was signed during the Congress regime in 1985. But the party did nothing to implement it. We will implement Clause 6 of the Assam Accord in some years, which will provide constitutional, legislative and administrative safeguards to protect the cultural, social, linguistic identity and heritage of the Assamese people," the BJP President said.
The Home Ministry recently constituted a nine-member committee to ensure implementation of Clause 6 of the Assam Accord. However, four members of the committee backed out of it in the wake of protests against the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill 2016.
Campaigning for the BJP's state ally, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) candidate Mani Madhav Mahanta, Shah said the Congress has allied with Badaruddin Ajmal's All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) to ensure victory of former Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi's son. Mahanta is taking on outgoing Congress MP Gaurav Gogoi in the Kaliabar Lok Sabha seat.
Raising the issue of poaching of rhinos, he criticised the Congress government for inaction and said the BJP government in the Centre and the state have brought down significantly such incidents by arresting alleged poachers.
"There is no killing of rhinos in Assam now. The Kaziranga National Park was occupied by infiltrators, the Congress never evicted them. It was protecting those infiltrators for its petty vote bank politics. But our government evicted encroachers from the park," he said.
"Our government in Assam also cleared 200 acres of land of a Vashnavite monastery, which was under illegal occupation," Shah said.
On the improved security, he said during the Manmohan Singh-Sonia Gandhi rule Pakistan used to behead our jawans and the government remained a mute spectator. "But we carried out strikes in Balakot after attacks on our jawans. We have joined the select league of strong countries, like the US and Israel, which know how to avenge attacks on their armed forces," he said.
The BJP leader claimed the Congress did nothing for the state even though Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a Rajya Sabha member from Assam.
He insisted that the BJP and its allies will win all the 14 Lok Saba seats in the state. These parliamentary seats will go to polls in three phases -- on April 11 (five), April 18 (five) and April 23 (four).
--IANS
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