Guwahati, Feb 19 (PTI) Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday released a 20-point ‘charge sheet’ against the BJP-led Assam government here, which accused the state administration of indulging in corruption and using its machinery to instil fear among minorities.
A BJP spokesperson dismissed the charges as ‘blatant lies and baseless’.
In the Assembly poll-bound state, the opposition party also accused the saffron party of, among other issues, failing to keep its assurance of granting ST status to six indigenous communities and increasing the daily wage of tea garden workers to Rs 351 in its decade-long regime.
The Congress further claimed that the BJP government engaged in “bulldozer justice and selective evictions of the minorities”.
Vadra, chairperson of the party’s screening committee for the state polls, is on a two-day visit and is being accompanied by Imran Masood and Saptagiri Sankar Ulaka, both Lok Sabha MPs, along with Sirivella Prasad, who are members of the panel.
Several senior party leaders, including state president Gaurav Gogoi, AICC general secretary in-charge of Assam Jitendra Singh, and Karnataka Deputy CM D K Shivakumar, former Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and former Jharkhand MLA Bandhu Tirkey, who are senior observers for the state elections, were also present on the occasion.
Gogoi, speaking before the release of the document, said, “This charge sheet is based on the issues the people raised before us, when our leaders and members approached them for preparing it.” He urged the block-level workers of the party to “take each of these issues to each household”, as the top leaders participated in a closed-door meeting with booth presidents and others immediately after the release of the ‘charge sheet’.
Lok Sabha MP Pradyut Bordoloi, who is heading the manifesto committee and was in charge of preparing the ‘charge sheet’, said it was compiled based on consultations with people over a period of three months.
“We are submitting it before the court of the people of Assam,” he said.
The Congress has ‘charged’ the BJP-led government of indulging in “rampant corruption and accumulation of illegal wealth by (chief minister) Himanta Biswa Sarma, his close ministers and their family members”.
It also accused the government of irresponsible financial management, institutionalisation of a ‘Syndicate Raj’ and generating a parallel economy.
It accused the saffron party of “hoodwinking Constitutional governance by instilling fear through draconian measures of police encounters and ‘cowboy’ justice”.
Maintaining that land of the indigenous people was being given to corporate houses, the opposition party charged the BJP government of “sabotaging” the Assam Accord, “stalling the NRC project, and continuous blackmailing of communities by promoting fear psychosis through official channels”.
It also claimed government complicity in the operation of illegal rat-hole mining, besides failing to accord the perennial floods and river bank erosion of the state as a national disaster.
The state Congress also accused the BJP government of “crushing freedom of speech and subversion of the fourth pillar of democracy”.
The ‘charge sheet’ also alleged that the government could not create new jobs and turned Assam into a “labour supply state”, throttling the public education system, failing to provide basic healthcare and protecting women and children from violence, proliferation of drugs, and lack of urban planning.
Meanwhile, state BJP senior spokesperson Rupam Goswami claimed that the ‘charge sheet’ contains “blatant lies and is completely baseless”.
“It is basically targeting a single person and not the party, if we go by the heading of the document,” Goswami told PTI.
The 12-page ‘charge sheet’ is captioned “People of Assam vs BJP Govt of Himanta Biswa Sarma (2021-2026)”.
Goswami accused the Congress of running ‘syndicates’ during its terms, which had led it to lose power in the first place.
He further said the BJP-led government has ensured peace across the state, checked rhino poaching, controlled flood and erosion problems, and ensured transparent recruitment in government jobs.
He also maintained that it was the Congress who had tried to “rein in” the media during Emergency and Assam Agitation, whereas the press has been given free hand by the current regime.
“These are baseless allegations. People know the truth,” the senior spokesperson added. PTI SSG BDC SSG NN
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