Silchar: Congress leader and national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra while campaigning for the party’s candidate in Assam’s Dhubri Wednesday accused the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of protecting criminals and the Mafia-Raj, implying that it still exists in the northeastern state.
Rokibul Hussainon is the Congress party’s candidate for the Dhubri constituency, who is in a direct contest with All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Bahauddin Ajmal, a three-time MP from this seat.
HT launches Crick-it, a one stop destination to catch Cricket, anytime, anywhere. Explore now!
“There are land mafias, supari mafias, balu (sand) mafias, coal mafias and they are openly operating their activities, Gandhi said.
She further said that several scams, including the PPE kit scam, flyover scam, and cow smuggling, had taken place under the BJP-ruled state, adding that the central leaders of their party never talk about it.
Also Read: Priyanka Gandhi Vadra calls Narendra Modi ‘egoistic’, attacks him over Prajwal Revanna row
Targeting Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Gandhi said that he was one of the first corrupt leaders from the Congress party to get clean from his activities by joining the BJP.
“There were big allegations of corruption against him when he was in Congress but as soon as he joined the BJP, it all vanished. BJP has a washing machine where all the allegations get cleaned,” she said.
Gandhi targetted Prime Minister Narendra Modi for campaigning for Janata Dal (Secular) leader Prajwal Revanna in Karnataka, who had been involved in a scandal and accused Modi of helping him flee the country.
“Thousands of videos of this scandal have come out and Modiji shares the stage with that person, and asks people to vote for him. Home minister Amit Shah helped that person to safely flee the country, this is their reality,” she said.
Talking about the rise in crime in BJP-ruled states, Gandhi mentioned instances, including gangrape and the murder of a 19-year-old girl in Uttar Pradesh’s Hathras, the Manipur incident in which two women were paraded naked and sexually assaulted and said that the PM doesn’t speak on these issues.
“When our girls win Olympic medals, he (Modi) clicks pictures with them and their party claims that this happened because of Modiji. But when that medal winner faces assaults by BJP leader and protests on the streets, Modiji doesn’t speak a word,” Gandhi said.
To Modi’s “snatching Mangalsutra” remark, she said that Congress was in power for 55 years after independence but never snatched anyone’s mangalsutra or gold.
“We made IITs [Indian Institute of Technology], IIMs [Indian Institutes of Management], ISRO, AIIMS and many other things. I challenge Modiji to be one such example in their ten years of rule. They want to change the constitution now, which they will never be able to do,” Gandhi remarked.
Gandhi claimed that Ajmal is playing the same role in Assam as Asaduddin Salahuddin Owaisi is doing in Telangana. “Both of them are BJP’s secret agents and they try to create challenges for Congress. In Assam, AIUDF has placed candidates where Congress had better position,” she said.
The Dhubri Lok Sabha seat has been an AIUDF bastion since the 2009 general elections when Badruddin Ajmal was first elected as an MP.
Further, appealing to vote for Congress, Gandhi said that their part, if comes to power, would increase the wage for Assam tea garden workers to Rs.400, which would fill the 3 million vacancies in the central government.
“The unemployment is highest in 45 years and 70 crore [700 million] are unemployed, 30 lakh [3 million] posts are vacant, and they (BJP) are bringing schemes like Agniveer to destroy the nation further. We are fighting against this and we want people’s support. You people from Dhubri can give a strong answer to BJP’s discrimination,” she added.
