Congress slams BJP for not including CAA in Assam manifesto, says they published false NRC

By Archana Prasad
Dispur (Assam) [India], March 24 : Congress leader Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday attacked BJP over Citizenship (Amendment) Act and the National Register of Citizens stating that BJP wants to trick people of Assam by showcasing that CAA is not an issue and thus they didn't mention it in their manifesto but they are confident to implement it in the state.
"BJP published inaccurate NRC and now they are claiming to correct it, what kind of logic is this?" Gogoi said speaking to ANI.
Taking a jibe at Chief Minister Sarbanand Sonwal, he said, "If the CM of Assam is much confident that CAA has to be implemented then why doesn't their manifesto speak so? The CM of Assam should have included CAA in the manifesto, why it is conveniently hidden?"
"Who made the inaccurate NRC? BJP made it. Lakhs of genuine Bengalis and thousands of Gorkhas are not included in NRC. Who is responsible for completely messing up this 830 crore exercise? It is BJP themselves," he added.
Referring to the Congress CAA campaign, he said, "We have launched a campaign against CAA and have urged people to support Congress by donating gamacha with messages against the Act, where symbolically the CAA word was crossed."
"We got lakhs of gamcha that showed how popular the Congress stand is and on the contrary look at the kind of trickery and deceitful politics the BJP is indulging in. In their Bengal manifesto, BJP did not include CAA and in Assam, they didn't mention CAA, this is not just Bengal based law, it's a centre law."
"If five states are going to the election then why has the BJP in one state manifesto put CAA and in another they have not included it because they want to trick the people of Assam. This a party of lies they want to trick people of Assam that CAA is not an issue, of course, CAA is an issue and just by mentioning it in one state and not in another it shows that this is a party of lies, deceit and trickery," he said.
"Is this a democracy? People sitting in Delhi cannot dictate to the people of Assam, this election is about Assam development as much as about Assamese pride," he added.
He further said, "I am confident of doing well in every seat in the first phase because of the problem of unemployment, inflation extremely acute in upper Assam. It's an agrarian-based society, mainly rural Assam and they have suffered because of the poor leadership of the BJP state government and especially the CAA during the protest in 2019 against this act."
"Five young people have sacrificed their lives during the CAA agitation their sacrifice can't go to vain. People of Assam especially in the first phase, are extremely supportive and they back the Congress party and Mahajoth alliance completely," he said.
"In phase one our party president Ripun Bora his seat is there he is contesting from his seat, the BJP party president unable to contest from his seat, he has gone to another seat that shows how confident we are, we all are fighting from our original seats," he added.
Talking about the Akhil Gogoi arrest, he said, "There are two new regional parties who are there, we always invited them but they choose to be outside of it not a matter, but I am saying that one of the party leaders Akhil Gogoi has been behind the bar, you can't explain the reason why he is in the bar."
"It is just the intimidation of the current BJP government to put a mind behind the jail. No reason they managed to find that's why he is guilty in court. Once we come to power we will ensure Akhil Gogoi is released from jail as soon as possible," he added.