GUWAHATI: Union home minister Amit Shah on Tuesday said China cannot grab even an inch of India’s land under Prime Minister Narendra Modi even as he slammed the Congress, reminding that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said “bye bye” to Assam during the 1962 China war.
Addressing an election rally at Lakhimpur in Assam near the Arunachal Pradesh border, he said the people of Assam can never forget how Nehru had left the state to its fate.
“When China attacked, Nehru said bye bye to Assam. Entire Arunachal and Assam can never forget 1962. What is the change now? Under Narendra Modiji government, China cannot grab even an inch of our land. Modiji has ensured that kind of governance,” Shah said.
He reminded that India had stood guard at Doklam for 45 days and the Chinese soldiers were forced to retreat.
Arunachal was known as the North-East Frontier Agency and a part of Assam in 1962 but administered differently. It became a Union Territory in 1972 and a full-fledged state in 1987.
Shah credited Modi with restoring peace in the Northeast and developing the region.
Attacking Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, he asked the party what it did for Assam. He alleged injustice was done to the state since the time of Rahul’s grandmother and former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
The home minister said thousands of youths had walked on the path of violence and many got killed before Modi restored peace by signing over 10 peace accords which saw 9,000 youths from the region joining the mainstream by giving up arms.
He said it was the BJP, not the Congress, which honoured Assam’s legendary singer-composer Bhupen Hazarika by conferring the Bharat Ratna on him. He said the BJP had also honoured Ahom General Lachit Borphukan, who had defeated the Mughals, by building his statue.
Shah said the lands of satras (Vaishnavite monasteries) and Kaziranga National Park were under encroachment from illegal migrants but the BJP government evicted the encroachers.
He alleged that the Congress had left Assam’s border with Bangladesh porous for illegal migration but the Modi government at the Centre and the Himanta Biswa Sarma government in Assam secured it.
“The Congress had signed the Assam Accord (in 1985) but did not fulfil the promises made there. We signed the Bodo peace accord and fulfilled all the promises within two years. The rhinos were killed during the Congress time. The Himanta government secured the animal and thereby, Assam’s tourism,” the home minister said.
Stating that the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act was removed from 80 per cent of Assam, he said the Modi government changed not only Assam but the entire Northeast.
He mentioned that Assam received Rs 4.15 lakh crore from the Centre in the last 10 years compared to Rs 1.62 lakh crore from the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance government in the preceding 10 years.
