Express News Service
GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday blamed the Congress and its policies of the past for the ongoing conflicts in Manipur and the rest of the Northeast.
“Manipur has seen ethnic conflicts and killings of civilians and defence personnel for 75 years,” Sarma said.
He shared figures of human deaths in ethnic conflicts and other violent incidents in the state since 1990.
He said 300 people were killed in the state in 1990, 1,100 in 1993, 400 in 1997, 95 in 2001, 140 in 2003, 105 in 2006, 200 in 2008, 220 in 2010 and 165 in 2012. He said ethnic conflicts and other violent activities were the reasons behind the deaths. He said all these incidents occurred during Congress regimes.
“I want to clearly say that because of the wrong policies adopted by the Congress during the formative years, today the states in the Northeast have not been able to resolve various disputes that exist from the time India attained freedom,” the Assam CM said.
“They (Congress) created situations. They put provisions in the Constitution. They either created safeguards in the Constitution which are creating various issues and problems among the communities or they had not done something which should have been done in the very beginning to resolve conflicts,” Sarma alleged.
ALSO READ | Case registered against Assam Rifles personnel for ‘obstructing’ police in Manipur
He asked the Congress to think and introspect on how Manipur is burning because of the party’s wrong policies and wrong approach towards the people of the Northeast.
“The sole responsibility is with the Congress. They must also remember that during all these violent activities, none of their Prime Ministers visited Manipur or tried to give a healing touch,” Sarma said.
He also said no Congress Union minister ever visited Manipur and stayed there for three nights and none of its ministers of state at the Centre stayed in the state for a month to resolve issues. He made the reference in the context of the visits by Union home minister Amit Shah and his deputy Nityanand Rai.
Without naming Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi, he said an Assam MP said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Assam’s Kokrajhar during communal violence. He said there were two “incidents” (communal violence )– one in 2008 and another in 2012.
“In 2008, almost 64 people were killed, 3,211 houses were burnt, 115 were injured and 11,690 others were affected in Darrang and Udalguri districts. There are no records suggesting Singh visited Assam at that point in time,” Sarma said, adding Singh did visit Kokrajhar in 2012 but only for an hour.
“That did not resolve the problem. The conflict was resolved when at the initiative of Intelligence Bureau, I took Bodo and Muslim leaders to Delhi and a discussion had taken place in the presence of then Union home secretary RK Singh,” the Assam CM added.
GUWAHATI: Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Tuesday blamed the Congress and its policies of the past for the ongoing conflicts in Manipur and the rest of the Northeast.
“Manipur has seen ethnic conflicts and killings of civilians and defence personnel for 75 years,” Sarma said.
He shared figures of human deaths in ethnic conflicts and other violent incidents in the state since 1990.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
He said 300 people were killed in the state in 1990, 1,100 in 1993, 400 in 1997, 95 in 2001, 140 in 2003, 105 in 2006, 200 in 2008, 220 in 2010 and 165 in 2012. He said ethnic conflicts and other violent activities were the reasons behind the deaths. He said all these incidents occurred during Congress regimes.
“I want to clearly say that because of the wrong policies adopted by the Congress during the formative years, today the states in the Northeast have not been able to resolve various disputes that exist from the time India attained freedom,” the Assam CM said.
“They (Congress) created situations. They put provisions in the Constitution. They either created safeguards in the Constitution which are creating various issues and problems among the communities or they had not done something which should have been done in the very beginning to resolve conflicts,” Sarma alleged.
ALSO READ | Case registered against Assam Rifles personnel for ‘obstructing’ police in Manipur
He asked the Congress to think and introspect on how Manipur is burning because of the party’s wrong policies and wrong approach towards the people of the Northeast.
“The sole responsibility is with the Congress. They must also remember that during all these violent activities, none of their Prime Ministers visited Manipur or tried to give a healing touch,” Sarma said.
He also said no Congress Union minister ever visited Manipur and stayed there for three nights and none of its ministers of state at the Centre stayed in the state for a month to resolve issues. He made the reference in the context of the visits by Union home minister Amit Shah and his deputy Nityanand Rai.
Without naming Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi, he said an Assam MP said former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had visited Assam’s Kokrajhar during communal violence. He said there were two “incidents” (communal violence )– one in 2008 and another in 2012.
“In 2008, almost 64 people were killed, 3,211 houses were burnt, 115 were injured and 11,690 others were affected in Darrang and Udalguri districts. There are no records suggesting Singh visited Assam at that point in time,” Sarma said, adding Singh did visit Kokrajhar in 2012 but only for an hour.
“That did not resolve the problem. The conflict was resolved when at the initiative of Intelligence Bureau, I took Bodo and Muslim leaders to Delhi and a discussion had taken place in the presence of then Union home secretary RK Singh,” the Assam CM added.