Anti-Christian’ attitude of BJP increased, alleges Gaurav Gogoi

In an attempt to appeal to the sentiments of the electorate in Christian-majority and poll-bound Meghalaya, Congress’ Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi on Monday alleged the BJP of being “anti-Christian” and rejected statements made by Assam chief minister HimantaBiswaSarma during election rallies in Meghalaya recently that there has not been a single incident in Assam that has affected the religious sentiments of Christian people in his state.
“On the contrary news reports have shown increasing intolerance towards minorities – Muslims and Christians alike. There have been instances of church demolition in Chirang in BTAD area of Assam Bhutan border by BJP Government. This anti-Christian attitude of the BJP has increased manifold in Assam as in rest of India,” Gogoi told reporters.
“Recently Janajati Dharma Sanskriti Suraksa Manch in Assam (an organization backed by RSS) has demanded the removal of the Scheduled Tribe Christians. This is against the spirit of respecting the indigenous ethnic origin of the Scheduled Tribes of the North East, especially the Christian community in Meghalaya and Nagaland. It also demonstrates the compelling need of BJP to repeatedly invoke their anti-Christian mentality,” the Congress leader maintained.
“Religious profiling and harassment of the Christian community in Majuli, Assam is further evidence of the mistreatment of the minority communities by BJP. In Assam the Police Special Branch SP’s sent out ‘secret’ letters to all SPs in the districts seeking information on churches and religious conversion in the region. This is a clear attempt at identifying and targeting Christians in the region. Most recently on February 14 in Narmadapuram in Madhya Pradesh, a church was vandalized,” he further said.
Dubs CM Conrad ‘puppet of Assam’
Dubbing Meghalaya Chief Minister and National People’s Party (NPP) supremo, Conrad Sangma as a “puppet” of Assam Chief Minister, HimantaBiswaSarma, the Congress party on Monday claimed that the Assam CM is “controlled by” Union Minister, Amit Shah.
Questioning Sarma’s silence on the alleged financial irregularities of the incumbent Meghalaya Democratic Alliance (MDA) government, Congress’ Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha, Gaurav Gogoi asked, why Sarma did not take up these issues of corruption as North East Democratic Alliance convener before the Meghalaya assembly elections, which is slated to be held on February 27.
“Everybody is aware how the government was formed in Meghalaya with BJP playing an important role as a broker to form the post poll alliance. Everybody is aware how close Dr. Sarma is with Chief Minister Conrad Sangma and how he was made Chief Minister,” the Congress parliamentarian from Assam’s Kaliabor Lok Sabha constituency, said.
“Conrad Sangma is a puppet of Sarma and he in turn is controlled by Amit Shah in Delhi. That is why. Sarma considers Amit Shah to be the Prime Minister and not Modi which he publicly announced in public meetings,” he said. Gogoi was reacting to the Assam Chief Minister’s statement during an election rally that the MDA government has not lived up to expectations and wondered where the fund meant for development disappeared.
“Sarma cannot absolve himself of the responsibility of denying the people of Meghalaya a government that should have been committed to work for the people of Meghalaya. He cannot now blame the NPP-led MDA Government alone for not fulfilling its promises. He cannot absolve his party, the BJP from the corruption carried out by the MDA,” he pointed out.
Asking Sarma to drop all his “drama to fool” the people of Meghalaya, Gogoi said, “If Meghalaya Government is a failure and incompetent, then he (Sarma) and his party are equally responsible for this failure.”
Gaurav listed the alleged scams of the previous government ranging from “816 crore Covid scam, 500 crore MUDA scam, 650 crore illegal coal scam, 149 crore Saubhagya scam” among others. “They (BJP-NPP) were hand in glove in the Great Meghalaya Loot,” Gogoi claimed
“The NPP -BJP MDA alliance partners are masters in the act of fooling the people of Meghalaya with their accusations and counter accusations against each other just before elections. They were hand in glove in the ‘ Great Meghalaya Loot’,” he alleged.